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raayllum · 3 years

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in tandem with the meta i’ve been developing for the past few days i mentioned here, as well as other metas i’ve written in the past, such as my recent-ish one about thunderfall almost a month ago, time to throw in two cents about the obvious:

tdp is a series that is primarily about how grief and trauma, fear, pain and death, transform us, and the choices the characters make in response to those things. this is true for nearly every named character we meet, with very few exceptions. it is especially relevant for the main cast (callum, rayla, ezran, claudia, soren, viren, harrow, etc.)

soren goes through trauma in 2x07, but it frees him from the grief he was staring right in the face; grieving the type of man he thought his father was (“you really believe that he’s a good person” -3x08), from the type of person soren thought he had to become, from the trauma he thought he was going to through, both experiencing and enacting, if he murdered the princes.

but claudia cannot handle grieving who her brother was in face of who he’s becoming and the news about her father, so she goes spiralling out, and goes through an experience so intense it causes her body lasting physical trauma (white hair stripe) in order to reverse it.

claudia is traumatized by losing her mother - “losing her is the hardest thing i’ve ever gone through” - to the point she is the one immobilized, emotionally, in 3x07: “don’t make me choose, not again.” this causes her to stay in an unhealthy dynamic with her father and to traumatize soren (and ezran) in 3x09.

there’s a reason that as claudia and soren become more emotionally impactful to TDP’s narrative, and receive more screentime, that their stories become more and more intertwined with the series’ overarching theme of Grief and Trauma. what else is the Cycle, after all, if not the perpetuation of those two themes - and even though the show is about Breaking the Cycle, that means the main theme of the show is still about how characters respond to the Cycle. it’s still about how they respond to trauma.

Every main character is traumatized or grieving, in some way or another. It is a fundamental reason about why they make the choices they do, good or bad, right or wrong, or both. It’s an overarching character motive. It’s the series’ overarching theme across the board. That’s the Point.

the very concept of what it means to Grow Up is synonymous with facing and processing grief:

I wanted to talk to you about life, and growing up. And about how sometimes, they are changes you don’t expect. But when you grow up, sometimes, you have to face things you’re not ready for.

the kids agree to the illusionist plan because “we’ll lose everything” if they’re wrong and claudia and soren can’t be trusted. viren only goes and fully turns himself over to aaravos because he has “nothing left to lose.” claudia asserts that “we’re both alive, that’s the important thing.” callum unlocks the sky arcanum through finding love amid grief and fear, first by denying dark magic with help from his father, and then the sky arcanum from his mother’s form. if i talked about how callum, ezran, and rayla’s arcs all keep coming back to the idea of grief and trauma, i’d be here for hours. but just to name a few of many, many examples

furthermore: the episodes that touch on explicit grief or trauma in some manner or another as follows are:

1x01: Callum worrying over Harrow, blowing up at Ezran, which is the inciting incident in the boys’ lives

1x02: Callum and Harrow’s goodbye

1x03: Viren’s efforts to save Harrow; Rayla turning against Runaan, the boys choosing to leave even though they’re worried

1x05: Rayla carrying the burden of her family’s mistakes

1x06: Rayla being willing to “pay the price” and lose her hand in order to spare Ezran’s life; Callum and Rayla worrying about Ezran; Soren being asked to kill the boys, Claudia being asked to prioritize the egg

1x07: Callum’s talk with Ezran about their mother - “I was so scared. I thought I was going to lose you like we lost her.” and Ellis being motivated to go up the Cursed Caldera to save Ava’s life

1x09: The kids trying to save the egg’s life

2x02: self explanatory

2x03: self explanatory

2x04: “When I could do magic, I finally felt like myself. Now I’ve lost that. I’m just trying to find my way back.”

2x05: self explanatory

2x06: self explanatory

2x07: Callum being so motivated by the potential grief of losing Rayla he does dark magic and ‘loses himself’; Soren being paralyzed

2x08: self explanatory

2x09: Rayla worries over losing Callum; the boys mourn Harrow; Ezran begins the process of grieving his childhood

3x01: Amaya risks her life, Gren thinks she’s dead and is horrified; Callum and Rayla worry over one another’s lives

3x02: Kasef is motivated by grief and fear; Ezran grieves his childhood and takes up the mantle of thing, despite not “being sure I’m ready for this” and refusing to give into the Cycle

3x03: Rayla and Soren lose everything

3x04: Rayla grieves the loss of her home and family

3x05: Soren chooses to betray his father and be a better crownguard because of how he lost Harrow and doesn’t want to lose Ezran

3x06: breaking the cycle is once again synonymous with letting yourself grieve / be afraid / feel hatred (aka respond to trauma), but not letting it consume you or dictate your actions in a negative way

3x07: the human soldiers choose to lose their humanity; Soren leaves Claudia; Janai mourns Khessa and she and Amaya have a moment about the loss

3x08: Rayla prepares to die in her parents’ stead and then finds out how they ‘died’; Soren’s aforementioned speech

3x09: the stabbing, Leap, and resurrection scenes are self explanatory

Episodes that (technically) don’t:

1x08

2x01

Grief is in more episodes of TDP than magic or spell casting is. TTM is almost entirely about responding to grief and trauma and the various ways those two things can stick to you. Characters make bad choices when they respond to their grief poorly, when they let it consume them: Harrow killing Thunder because of Sarai, even if it’s the last thing she would have wanted; Rayla leaves Callum in TTM because she’s so terrified of him dying, even though it’s the last thing he wants. Viren mourns Harrow, yes, but in his grief he orders Soren to kill his best friend’s sons and steals the king’s seal.

Characters make good choices when they don’t succumb to their grief and process it in ways that doesn’t hurt anyone else.

But the show, obviously, isn’t always as clear cut as that, because grief and trauma - experiencing those, responding to those things - are not always easy. They’re basically never easy! TDP’s characters are exceedingly multifaceted because they’re messy, and hold contradictory stances, sometimes. Claudia is sweet but uses Dark Magic; Rayla is selfless and selfish; Callum is very nurturing and can also be very insensitive; Ezran is the nicest kid but does have a temper when he gets pushed far enough; Soren isn’t the brightest, but he has a deep emotional core. They’re made to feel like real people, with flaws, quirks, and more.

That’s what makes the narratives they’re given - the motives and motifs, the symbols and sacrifices - and largely, how they respond to TDP’s main theme of Grief, so continuously compelling.

Because TDP posits that not only is tackling grief - the loss of your old self, your family, a parent, your home, etc. - necessary to growing up, it’s also necessary to learning how to heal, for both yourself and the people around you. That responding and processing your grief is a Responsibility, as well as a necessity.

(TDP is also a series obsessed with Death - largely through dark magic and moonshadow society - and death seeking, but that’s a meta for another time).

For now I will leave you on this note: TDP says that we can process and move on from our grief, and heal the rifts that exist within ourselves, if not also with others. As much as the series is about Grief and Loss, it is also very Hopeful that there is a way to do more than just grieve and Survive. That we can Grieve, and learn how to Live, afterwards, too.

#tdp #tdp meta #the cycle #the dragon prince #literally in viren's case lmao (i'm so sorry but the joke setup was there too)#arc 1 #analysis series #analysis #been doing research about having heightened mortal salience from a young age for therapy recently #and it's like damn no wonder tdp slaps so hard for me lmao #long post #altho i can put this under a read more upon request <3 #mental health #realized belatedly i could've talked more about ethari (and even runaan) but #another day another meta lmao

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scapegrace74-blog · 4 years

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In Dreams

A/N I don’t do Twitter, but roughly once a year I wish I did. A few weeks back, some clever Outlander writers there came up with the idea of the Eye Sex Chronicles, in which various pre-relationship scenes between Jamie and Claire are re-imagined in a less PG way. I asked Catrin Writes if I could join the party, and she kindly agreed. And because I like nothing more than a challenge, the scene I chose is when Jamie comes for Claire after the Redcoat ambush in 1x01. Rated mildly M, in case you care about that sort of thing.

Since he was a lad, Jamie had been visited by a recurring dream. In it, he was chasing a figure through a forest. His quarry materialized and dissolved like mist in the dappled light, with limbs as pale as bone and a thundercloud about its head. A sidhe, perhaps, come to deceive him.

The details of the dream shifted, but the ending was always the same. At the edge of a burn, he caught up with the apparition. Staring into her peculiar golden eyes (for it was indeed a woman), the dirt beneath his feet gave way and he fell headlong into a bottomless unknown. Then, he woke.

***

She had to be dreaming, Claire rationalized. Or at least hallucinating. It was the only explanation that fit the facts. Redcoat soldiers wielding muskets. Coarse ruffians speaking Gaelic and tossing her from horseback like a sack of laundry. A Frank doppelganger trying to rape her. Her subconscious must have muddled together her husband’s obsession with Scottish history and the emotional turmoil of their second honeymoon to produce this elaborate fantasy. Sigmund Freud would rub his hands together with glee.

It didn’t explain, however, why she could feel every nettle and branch as they lashed against her limbs, or why the icy water of the stream she was following numbed her toes. If she was only dreaming, she should stand still and wait for consciousness to return. And if she were hallucinating, she doubted she’d be capable of analyzing her circumstances. She ran because she was afraid to find out what might happen if she was wrong. She ran because it was only a matter of time before her captors gave chase.

***

The ambush by a small patrol of Redcoats ended abruptly in the way of most skirmishes. One minute he was fighting for his life, and the next he was leaning on his sword, sharing a flask of whisky with his brothers in arms.

Dougal had a ribald glint in his eye as he ordered Jamie to round up the Sassenach lass. He thought he’d kept his reaction to her lovely face and near-nakedness well hidden in the dim firelight of the croft, but his uncle’s smirk said otherwise. The men hooted as though it was a great joke - sending the virgin after the mettlesome wench.

It was only as he was retracing his steps to the strath where he’d thrown their captive from Donas’ back that he realized he was injured. The muscles of his shoulder joint were still tender, just as she’d predicted after she’d manipulated the bones back into place. This new pain was sharper and accompanied by the coppery tang of blood. Compounded by the fact that he hadn’t slept or eaten more than a crust of bread in nigh on a day, it was no surprise that his head was feeling light and empty as a cloud, with a persistent buzzing sound filling his ears. He continued his search, determined to find the lass before continuing on their way. She’d mended him. He at least owed her that much.

An ivory figure dashed between the trees, bringing to mind his dream. Deja vu, the French called it. The sense that he had lived this moment before, perhaps countless times. Reality tilted sideways, and he could no longer discern what was true and what was illusion. The memory of both his dream and his objective compelled him to give chase. He spurred his horse forward.

***

Damn it! For a figment of her imagination, the tall red-headed Scot was annoyingly persistent. Seumas. Jamie. Mowgli. She’d heard the other men call him by many names, further evidence that this illogical adventure was just an inventive delusion. She’d certainly conjured an attractive antagonist, with his raw potency and soulful blue eyes. He was a bit too chiseled for her taste, and good lord he was gigantesque, but somehow he pulled it off without seeming a brute. Despite the driving rain, the night spent on horseback wrapped together in his plaid hadn’t been unpleasant. Unlike every other character in this illusion, he didn’t feel threatening.

He leapt from his horse and was approaching with his arms spread wide, a bloodied sword dangling from one hand in an offhand way. She’d seen men approach unbroken horses in much the same manner. Well, she was no docile mare, willing to accept the bit. If he thought he could subdue her with sonorous words from his pretty lips, he had another thing coming. She lifted her chin defiantly. Maybe the way out of this nightmare was to refuse to play along. She spat defiance in his direction, daring him to accost her.

***

Christ, she was beautiful. It hadn’t escaped his notice when they’d first met, despite his dislocated shoulder. But out here in the forest, with smudges of dirt marring her luminous skin and cockleburs matting her hair, she was every cautionary tale he’d learned at his father’s knee. A bewitching siren come to lure his soul to sin.

If her foreign ways and total lack of meekness wasn’t evidence enough that she was the otherworldly creature from his dream, the violent mystery of her agate eyes confirmed it. They were unforgettable, calling to him from across the ages.

Despite his better judgment, he stepped closer, saying something daft about throwing her over his shoulder, as though he’d ever demean her in that way. Her breath came into short pants that caused her unbound breasts to rise and fall beneath her thin shift. His fingers twitched, aching to touch her, to confirm that she was real. Some lucid corner of his brain that wasn’t starved of blood and delirious with bloodlust argued that he’d spent many hours pressed up against her very mortal and lovely arse. He ignored it in favour of another step in her direction. Like a mindless beast, he sniffed the air. She smelled like his mate.

***

She’d spent enough time around soldiers returning from the front to recognize the half-crazed look, the dilated pupils, the waves of sexual energy wafting off his skin. The male animal confronted death and procreation with much the same physical response, opposite sides of the same coin.

She should have been frightened by his proximity, but instead she drew back her shoulders and stared directly into his marine gaze, daring him to take another step. Delirious with disorientation and lack of sleep, she flirted with the combustible element that arced between them from the first. She’d never behave so wantonly if she thought for a moment this was real. It was a harmless fantasy, made all the more appealing by the combination of artlessness and virility exuded by the man in question.

***

He dropped his sword, a useless defence against temptation. His feet carried him forward of their own volition, answering the urgent summons in her eyes. So close now, skirting the very edge of a precipice. Surely his dream had been a prophecy, a foretelling of a critical juncture in his life. Temptress or Sassenach healer, their paths were fated to cross. There was nothing he could do to deny the hand of fate.

She’d backed against a tree and his palms came to rest on the ample swell of her hips. He’d never touched a woman so close to her skin. It was intoxicating, warm and supple. She was no longer speaking, watching him instead with those predator’s eyes, wary but not afraid. Her lips were pressed together, and he longed to pry them apart with his tongue, to taste her soul and share his own. Bending slowly forward, the muscle in his beleaguered shoulder seized in sudden pain. Bubbles of dizziness flooded his vision and he slumped forward, momentarily boneless, landing against her lush curves.

***

Christ, he was heavy. One moment she had been certain he was about to kiss her senseless, and then he sagged forward, pinning her between his bloodstained torso and a tree. Her nursing instincts sprang to life as she attempted to soothe him. She ran her fingers through his tangled curls and over the abutments of his face, searching for a contusion and finding only tacky blood and prickly stubble. She could feel his deep breaths echoing against her breastbone. He groaned a word in Gaelic that made her wish she understood the tongue.

***

Pressed against her as he was, he marveled at the brilliance of God’s design. She was soft where he was hard, a perfect counterpoint that answered the question his body had been asking since adolescence. He wasn’t ignorant of carnal matters, but nor had he imagined that he could derive such pleasure merely from cleaving his body to hers. In his previous trysts with with the young maids of his youth, it had never been so.

Her hands were surprisingly strong as they prodded his skin, seemingly drawn to the places that called out for her touch. They skimmed gently over his shoulders. The lancing pangs had faded like the morning mist, leaving him conscious only of the pulsing ache radiating from his groin. He’d been hard beneath his plaid since fighting the Redcoats, but it had progressed to the brink of pain. Certainly she could feel it, barely clad as she was, but he felt no shame in the knowledge. There was a deeper magic at work here, far outside the laws of propriety.

***

Her fingertips touched the bands of muscle along his flank, having snuck unawares beneath his filthy shirt. Her arms opened to span his torso, no longer pretending to minister to his wounds and instead holding him tight, in case he was considering retreat. It helped that she couldn’t see his face, hidden as it was beyond her hair, but she could read the impulse on his dewy skin and through the vibration of his every sinew. He wanted her. Not only because she was a female body close at hand, but on some more fundamental level. She wanted him as well, but that was the dream talking.

***

The thinnest filament held back the raging storm inside of him. What few thoughts he could maintain circled around the inscrutable riddle of her identity. If she truly was the vision from his dream, then what was her purpose? And if she was flesh and blood, then why did she tolerate his trespass? His answer came in the form of a whimper, sneaking from her lips to his ear and straight to his cock. The cord snapped, and he began to rut against her in earnest, the coarse wool of his plaid scratching his swollen flesh.

Dhia, it was a thousand times greater than any pleasure his own hand could inflict, and yet it was woefully deficient. His hips pressed forward with more force, grinding their bones together, seeking a home inside her warmth. Rather than retreat, she answered with advances of her own. She shuddered and moaned, her nails biting into the scars across his back. He had no language to describe what her body was demanding. He hurtled towards an unknowable point, both hunter and prey in a breathless pursuit. It was bottomless and inescapable, just as in his dream.

***

She’d lost all sense of herself. There was no Claire. No Frank. No everlasting dream about Scottish outlaws. Even the rough bark of the tree against which she was pinned was gone. All that remained was the bitter agony of incompletion and the solid male form that could deliver her from it. She whimpered, tears of frustration leaking from her eyes. She wanted... no, she needed more. More contact. More friction. More of his sublime body that answered every question she asked it wordlessly.

Broad palms slipped down to cup her ass, then lifted her as though she was made of feathers. At that first perfect moment of connection, she cried out. The depths opened up beneath them and her only fear was that she would fall alone. Clamping her thighs around his hips, she circled and writhed directly over the defined prominence of his cock. They both groaned as twin spasms spun outward from where they were fused together. The hot rush of his eruption warmed her belly, shaking from the force of her own contractions.

The fever crept away as inexplicably as it came, leaving her stippled in gooseflesh and drowning in turmoil. What had just happened? Had she really allowed this stranger, this walking paradox, to bring her to gratification, fully clothed, against the trunk of some bloody Scottish tree? And oh, when would she wake up and return to the mundane struggles of her real life? This, whatever it was, was too much to endure.

***

At the first twitch of her body after endless moments of utter stillness, he lowered her gently to her feet. He could feel his release trickling down his thigh. Rather than address him, if only to slap him as he deserved, she turned towards the burn. She knelt for a long time, drinking from her cupped palm and splashing water over her face. Doubtless, she was also rinsing his seed from her skin. He burned with remorse. Sidhe or not, he’d treated her contemptibly.

The rush of blood between his ears was slowing, leaving him shaky and weak. He bent to retrieve his sword and the ground tilted aslant beneath him. By the time she returned from the burn, her eyes demurely focused downwards, he had mounted Donas and was able to lift her over the withers with his good arm. He tried in vain to keep from pressing up against her, trying to atone for his previous behaviour. They set off in search of Dougal and the others without another word.

***

The further they rode, the more Claire became convinced she had hallucinated the entire thing. The young Scot named Jamie was still kind and solicitous, offering her a slug of whisky and sharing his plaid as the night air grew cold, but he betrayed no proof of their intimate encounter. Along with everything else that was happening, it was too much to contemplate, so she pushed it to the back of her mind.

Well past midnight, she felt his bulk behind her slide sideways as he started to topple to the ground.

“Stop! Help, he’s going over!”

Leaping to the ground and ordering the other men about like a petty general, she poured whisky into the newly discovered wound that pierced the trapezius muscle. Yet more evidence, if she was looking for it, that their union in the forest had all been in her head. Who could please a lover while bleeding out from a gunshot?

Jamie sputtered back to consciousness beneath her hands.

“Welcome back,” she commented pertly.

***

The blank screen in front of his eyes reassembled around the familiar faces of Murtagh, Dougal, Angus and the others, peering down at him in the gloom. He must have fallen deep asleep while they fled to Leoch. His memories were foggy, but he recalled a dream of chasing a mysterious woman through a wooded strath, catching her by the edge of a burn, and then... well, it wouldn’t be the first time his sleeping mind brought him gratification, although generally not on horseback.

“I’m all right. Just a wee bit dizzy,” he tried to convince the assemblage, eager to get back on his horse. They couldn’t afford a delay.

“You're not all right,” an oddly familiar English voice pronounced. Without waiting for him to respond, she launched into a tirade.

“Couldn’t you tell how badly you were bleeding? You're lucky you're not dead, brawling and fighting and throwing yourself off horses.”

He stared up in disbelief at her fiercely beautiful face, the one he recognized from his dreams.

She was here.

#my writing #outlander

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luci-in-trenchcoats · 3 years

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Season 1 Reviews

1x01 “Pilot”: It was hard to start this rewatch for some reason or another. I think knowing how it all ends and where the characters wound up made that difficult for me, Dean’s story especially. The finale sent a message to me that I didn’t particularly like and it made me personally feel a bit of how do I watch this show knowing where Sam’s story goes, where Dean’s goes? Believe me, I’ve tried to like the finale over and over. I still don’t know if I’ll ever watch 15x20 again. I hope you loved it or liked it. I wish I could view it that way but alas ultimately I can’t and it’s okay if I can’t ever get there. How do I get past that unintended message of there’s only peace in death that I took from the finale though? Spoiler, I didn’t, but I did stop letting one single episode affect my enjoyment of my favorite show and favorite characters.

So I woke up and decided to not think about the end and to watch the first episode without any of that in my mind. After a few minutes I forgot all about the series finale and was enjoying the show again. The pilot seemed to breeze by and there’s so much good stuff in there. The framework of who the boys are is there. The supernatural world they live in is there. I only caught one line that was a little cheesy feeling to me. For an episode from 2005, it’s held up very well in my opinion. I love young Dean. I love young Sam. I love watching them not know perfectly what they’re doing. I still love this show and despite the overall ending, the journey is still worth it. If you’re in that same boat I was, my advice is simply be in the moment with the characters and not think of the story fifteen years from then. Overall the pilot is a good opener episode that gives enough horror, backstory and sibling relationships to make the show work and at the very least get you interested in where it’s going next.

1x02 “Wendigo”: I know Wendigo is one of those episodes where either you love it or hate it but I enjoy this one. It builds off of the brother dynamic in episode one and starts to add those layers that we love to the boys. Overall the story is a bit average and something the boys would probably consider a milk run in later years but I’m really loving watching them scrape by and seeing things aren’t so easy for them. Plus the iconic “saving people, hunting things” and “the family business” lines are in it so it has to get some props for that. Some parts in the mines were a little too dark though (hello season 1 and 2 dark gradient, I remember you well).

1x03 “Dead In the Water”: An episode revolving around water really shouldn’t be that scary but this one kinda is! The thing that stands out most however is probably that another piece of Dean’s character is revealed through his interactions with Lucas. He genuinely cares about the kid and seeing the softer more vulnerable side of Dean helps round him out as more than just the cocky brother.

1x04 “Phantom Traveler”: The first demon episode of the show reminds you of why demons were thought to be scary in the first place. It’s great to see the boys not quite know how to handle something outside of “their normal gig.” In later season demons are turned into background bad guys that are easily killed but this episode reminds you of how powerful a single random demon used to be and how much of a struggle the boys had with handling them. Dean’s fear of planes is an interesting element to his character and explains the loophole of why they drive everywhere. The biggest thing I’m taking away so far is despite the higher level of horror and scares in the early episodes, the boys have a lightness about them that’s very refreshing. Some of their mannerisms (Sam’s bitchface, Dean’s over excitedness over something simple, etc.) are starting to show up and I never realized before how early on those elements were appearing.

1x05 “Bloody Mary”: Hello to what I consider one of the scariest episodes of Supernatural ever. I’ll admit to having done this silly mantra at sleepovers but damn, this episode makes a game something else altogether. Sam and Dean work well together and we see the first glimpses of Sam’s psychic abilities (something I desperately wish they would have brought back more in later seasons).

Reviews of episodes 1x06 and beyond coming soon!

#supernatural #spn #spn review #supernatural review #dean winchester #sam winchester #dean #sam

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jaskierskisses · 4 years

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Meeting You (Part 1)

About the first encounters in episode 1x02

The Witcher Meta. Geraskier meta. Netflix.

Hi my friends! This is my second meta from the Netflix's serie, and I had to put it in two parts, because it has a lot of info for all of you.

I want to say thank you to my friend @agusvedder , she made the gifs for this meta, Thank You girl!

This is a more focused analysis in Geraskier.

Let's start...

First encounters

As I pointed in my first meta here, this episode shows us three Parallels of three different first encounters. But Geralt and Jaskier will be blatantly mirrored by Jester and Yennefer, (a romantic couple).

The first scene is related to Yennefer and talks about a foreshadow in episode 1x06: the lover's separation (when Geralt offended her about her motherhood desires).

This scene is between two young lover's, hidden. The girl asks for her baby, and the young man answers I THOUGHT YOU DIDN'T WANT HIM, and the girl gets mad. They discovered Yennefer observing them.

First meeting: YENNEFER AND JESTER

When Yennefer meets Jester we have this amazing scene with a contrast between the deformed/self concept of monster (Yennefer) and the beautiful man (Jester).

Jester tries to get to her being kind, and approaching her slowly, but he makes a mistake... He calls her a virgen.

Yennefer reacts almost by instinct, but this is telling us, she felt offended because Jester didn't know her to talk about such an intimate manner... Keep all of these things in mind, because the parallal with Geraskier is delicious.

Now, we could say, Yennefer was lonely, and she found a protector (Jester) and a wise guide (her sorceress's mentor).

First Meeting: CIRILLA AND DARA

So here, CIRILLA finds Dara, a quiet lonely protector that came from nowhere to be with her. But he doesn't talk. Is the importance of this parallel, the kid is taciturn, but committed to protect Ciri to any cost.

First Meeting: GERALT AND JASKIER

Jaskier is singing a song in one rustic tavern, he is naming different kind of monsters, and the public get bored, and buffed at him. Our poor bard exclaims here something like "I'M GLAD I REUNITE YOU ALL IN HERE," and we could infer, is another foreshadow of his implied mission, by being present in two of the most important moments in Geralt's life that will tied him to his destiny: Ciri and Yennefer, so, we could say, Jaskier will reunite them together.

But, remember when Jester approached slowly to Yennefer? Well... He does the same here in the tavern, when he spots Geralt brooding alone in a corner. His approaching is very seductive, but he failed in his pick up quote...

The thing is... When he discovers who Geralt is...

His eyes shone with determination. He will follow this Witcher.

Naming him in the middle of that place, brings Geralt a job and money, immediately changing Geralt's luck.

Trying to know you

We all can spot the precise moment in which Jaskier decides to follow Geralt, immediately after the Witcher stood up and walked away.

Then we had the Shrek/Donkey scene, because that's what that scene was, right?

They even describe Geralt as an onion, because his layers... And because is a very poetic way to see him. Not just that, but... Jaskier smells one big, grumpy onion. And he began to name each one of his layers... Fascinating, because it talks about how the bard, an observatory of people and life, is trying to decipher this mysterious Witcher. And in that attempt to describe him, he gets to the point of one accurate first impression...

Stories... Death... Poetry... Destiny... Heroic acts... Brokenhearts. (Yes, I know... So many foreshadows... Mostly one sweet bard's heart that will break...)

And then, at the end of all these layers... Geralt concluded IS ONION. Of course, you are an onion, but I think Jaskier is discovering you slowly... And he is very insightful in reading you...

And pay attention to this scene ... When Jaskier mentions THE BUTCHER OF BRAVIKEN, is like Jester calling Yennifer VIRGEN, You don't know me enough to call me like that. And he punch Jaskier. Just like Yennefer slapped Jester.

Love me some Geraskier parallel with a romantic couple...

What do you want?

Is blatant the way the writer established the parallel between Jester/Yennefer and Geralt/Jaskier.

First of all, there's a dialogue with Yennefer and Jester, in which Yennefer says that she found herself there and Jester found her.

Now... Back to Geraskier parallel, the bard is trying hard to decipher the mystery that Geralt is... So he starts to analyze him. Geralt is muted because it seems as if everything what Jaskier is saying is truth. He calls him White Wolf, because he is trying hard to change the idea of the public about him. He needs people to see Geralt as he sees him: a real hero. Because he noticed since the first time, Geralt is beautiful.

And he is not scary, just like Marilka thought too.

So... We have Jaskier trying to see what Geralt would want... And we have Jester/Yennefer scene in which he is teaching Yen to see what is hidden to the eyes. When Jester starts to name things that are hidden, Yen asks "Those are the things you love? And Jester answers: Those are the things I thought you would love."

Is like trying to read her mind, just like Jaskier is trying to read Geralt's mind.

Another visual tool used to establish the parallels between these three first encounters were the color BLUE. Ciri, Yennefer and Jaskier were dressed in blue, these three characters intimately related to Geralt's destiny. The color BLUE symbolizes knowledge and protection, resting in the witcher's hand to be the protector of these three.

To Conclude:

In this first part of episode 1x01 meta we are witness of how the writers blatantly established a parallel between Geralt/Jaskier and Jester/Yennefer first encounter. Knowing Jester and Yennefer are romantically involved, what the writers are doing is not so different to what Andrzej Sapkowski did with his books.

Is an episode that talks about first encounters and how the destiny is being knitted with one first meeting JASKIER, who will be the one reuniting Geralt with his different destinies.

We see how Jaskier is not afraid of Geralt, by the contrary, he is fascinated with him and decides to follow him and make the people to see him as he sees him.

More than this, my reading of their first encounter, is a first sight crush from our cute bard.

Thanks for reading, I'll see you in the second part.

Tags: @agusvedder @legendary-destiel @spnsmile @mrsaquaman187 @jawnlockwinchester

If you want to be added to this list, just let me know.

Buenos Aires, March 5th 2020 23:34 PM

#geraskier #geraskier meta #the witcher meta #1x01 meta #jaskier #geralt the rivia #geralt x jaskier #yennefer of vengerberg #geralt x yennefer #Jester #Cirilla #parallels and mirrors #the witcher netflix

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osleyakomwonkru · 4 years

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10 Days of Favourites - Songs

7 days to season 7!

Today’s countdown topic: My seven favourite songs that have appeared in the show! 7. The Spiritual Machines - “Couldn’t Stop Caring” (2x13 Resurrection) “I could see the signs/She was fixed to fly/It's always better fought than won/For those not afraid to die/I couldn't stop, couldn't stop, stop stop it...” I just like the sound of this song, as everyone starts marching off to war. All of their expressions, hardened for war - except for Abby’s, who is instead distraught about what war has done to her daughter, and doesn’t want to accept that she’s been making the same decisions as they did back on the Ark, and the knowledge that it is because of the way she (that is, Clarke) was raised that she was able to make them so easily, as Abby and Kane discussed earlier in the episode while they were trapped. 6. Jim James - “State of the Art (AEIOU)” (4x07 Gimme Shelter) “...Are we better human beings?/We've got our wires all crossed/The tubes are all tied/And I'm straining to remember/Just what it means to be alive/A life worth living...” Another cool-sounding song, that pans over all of the different storylines of the episode - Octavia and Ilian, where Octavia decides to go home with him; Bellamy recognizing to Kane that he can’t save everyone; everyone in Becca’s lab preparing to run the radiation test on the Grounder thief. Many stories shift in this episode, an important step heading into the final act of the season. 5. RAIGN - Knocking on Heaven’s Door (2x16 Blood Must Have Blood Part 2) “Mama, take this badge from me/I can't use it anymore/It's gettin' dark, too dark to see/I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door...” This is a classic, the song that closes out the Mount Weather storyline of season 2, where everyone returns to Camp Jaha - except for Clarke. She chooses to go off on her own to (not) deal with what she’s done. Bellamy tries to dissuade her, but there’s no changing her mind. The RAIGN cover of Bob Dylan is quite suitable for this scene - they’ve all lost more pieces of their childhood innocence after the experience at Mount Weather, but for no one is that more profound than for Clarke - all the choices and sacrifices she made in season 2 to secure the alliance with the Grounders so they could defeat Mount Weather without an all-out massacre - only for it to end up that way anyway. 4. Aurora - “Through The Eyes of a Child” (4x12 The Chosen) “World is covered by our trails/Scars we cover up with paint/Watch them preach in sour lies/I would rather see this world through the eyes of a child/Through the eyes of a child...” This is a poignant song for a pivotal moment - the second Culling of Skaikru, this time in the Second Dawn Bunker. I can’t help but see a twofold meaning to this song, where it talks about wanting to see the world through the eyes of a child. First, it is referring to the quite literal emphasis on saving the Skaikru children - seen both how Kane tells the Grounders that all of the children stay and how Jaha picks up Ethan after Hardy is taken away, essentially adopting him as his own. Second, the more metaphorical death of the last of Octavia’s innocence. Earth has been chipping away at Octavia’s innocence ever since she stepped out of that dropship in 1x01, but here as she steps into a leadership role, what last bits of it remained are washed away. Just like the adults did on the Ark in 1x05 when the Culling took place, Octavia doesn’t shy away, she stands there and bears witness, even as all manner of accusing glances are thrown her way. 3. Koda - Radioactive (3x13 Join or Die) “...I'm breaking in, shaping up, then checking out on the prison bus/This is it, the apocalypse...” “Radioactive” is a classic for this show, ever since it was the soundtrack to the delinquents landing on Earth in 1x01, and this more muted cover of the Imagine Dragons original is so appropriate for a flashback to the hours before that, when they were boarding the dropship. It’s a bittersweet moment, thus the somber version, because we’re reminded that most of the characters we’re seeing board the dropship are dead. 2. RAIGN - Empire of our Own (2x11 Coup de Grace) “...Our minds are full of freedom/We're in a world where we all come alive/And oh oh oh, when love becomes the reason/We fly with kings tonight and come down/With an Empire of our own...” This is a moment that exudes Big Dick Energy as Clarke and Abby confront each other and come close to blows and an all-out fight between Skaikru and Grounders. But backed up by Octavia, Indra and the rest of the Grounders, Clarke gets her way. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, but I do appreciate the song in this scene. 1. Tree Adams/Julia Dominczak - Osleya gon Rouz/A Champion in Red (5x04 Pandora’s Box) “...Soncha kik thru, noda raz/Osleya gon rouz/'So groun op kon'cho drein au/Folau gon folau, klaka gon uf” (A light survives, another dawn/A champion in red/We grow from what we've bled/Ash to ash and bone to brawn) Come on, you had to have seen this one coming. A song *about* Octavia was always going to take the top spot. I love this song in Trig much more than the Grounder anthem “Take A Life With Me”, because, well, Osleya is kind of my brand, to go ahead and state the obvious. To muse more on the title Osleya I feel is relevant. The only person who seriously uses it, as far as I can remember, is Indra. Brell uses it mockingly during the meeting of delegates, and Niylah uses it playfully (and it’s because of Niylah’s usage of “Osleya kom Wonkru” and my shipping goggles that I chose this title of Octavia’s as my username). Indra dresses Octavia in the Commander’s garb, but she doesn’t go so far as to use the title Heda. I wonder if that was her concession to Gaia and her faith, or if it is because Octavia insisted on not claiming such a title, or what, but Osleya is my favourite of Octavia’s titles, because it was the one that was uniquely hers and that represented hope. And hope is all I ever want for her.

#the 100 #the 100 music #favourite songs #countdown to season 7 #octavia blake #clarke griffin #abby griffin

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poorreputation · 5 years

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SPN 15X03 The Rupture: Meta Of Love, Prophecy and Gut Wounds

Really, it's as simple as that.

Tagging: @thegalwhorants @emblue-sparks @metafest @verobatto-angelxhunter @evvvissticante @sudo-apt-get-destiel @wildligia @mishka-the-angel-of-saturday @stopmakingfaces (peeps put in bold are those tumblr won’t let me tag. It’s tumblr, what else is new?)

Mary Winchester 1X01: The iconic image of her, pinned to the ceiling, her nightgown stained with blood around her stomach, as John looks on in horror. And then she burns.

Jessica Moore 1X01: Dies in the same manner as Mary, right down to the blood around her abdomen. She too burns in front of her partner, Sam.

Both she and Mary were sacrificed to encourage or even fulfill prophecy. Mary died when she interfered with Azazel. Jessica died because with her gone, Sam would let his anger consume him, priming him for his destiny.

Castiel 12X12: Cas is stabbed with the Lance of Michael, also receiving a wound to the gut, and is considered as good as dead. But, there's a magical loophole involved, which leads to Crowley breaking the lance in half, stopping the spell. Before this can be done, we get the instant classic "I love you, *looks at Dean* I love all of you. *looks at Sam and Mary*" This, for all intents and purposes, was a deathbed confession.

Kaia Nieves 13X10: Is killed by Evil!Kaia in the Bad Place, stabbed in the stomach with a spear, a very powerful spear that could harm the Archangel Michael. Now, 12X12 was written by Davy Perez, and 13X10 by Bobo Berens, but the connection of spears/lances meant to kill archangels and connected to Michael, It has Beren's/Dabb’s fingerprints all over it.

More so, Kaia's death is linked to prophecy; Patience had a vision of Claire dying, only for it to turn out to be Kaia. But, knowing going to the Bad Place could mean her death, Kaia chose to go with Claire. She accepted those risks, just as much as Claire did. Choice, even in the face of prophecy and fate. (I know Patience isn’t a prophet, so it’s technically only a premonition, but just roll with it)

Rowena 15X03: Dies by Sam's hand, as told by Billie, in the form of a knife to the stomach. Rowena makes it explicitly clear she lives her life by magic and prophecy, and chooses to use her death to create the spell needed to send all of the souls back to Hell. It's prophecy, but her choice. Not to mention, in her final words, "Goodbye, boys." she evokes her son, Crowley. Crowley, who's already heavily linked to this topic in 12X12, saving Castiel, doing so with a magical loophole. This episode was also written by Bobo Berens, who loves his bookends and mirrors.

You can argue about whether Mary and Jess are being called back to in the later episodes, but I'm pretty sure Cas, Kaia and Rowena were meant to be connected, paralleling one another.

If you like what you see, and want to be tagged in future episode notes/metas, let me know!

#SPN #15X03 #The Rupture #S15 #S15 Spoilers #S15 Speculation #Meta #Mary #Mary/John #Jessica #Sam/Jess #Cas #Destiel #Kaia #Dreamhunter #Rowena #Samwitch #mirrors #mirrors everywhere #parallels

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deadcalamari-blog · 5 years

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Ben is not like the other ghosts that we see in the show. I know, quelle surprise! But first off, we know that Ben died while on a mission. Based on the photos they had taken throughout their lives and just the way that Reginald was, pretty sure that even in their later teens, they still had some kind of ‘uniform’ when they went out on missions. Ghost-Ben has on “regular” clothes. The other ghosts that we see (from Klaus’s perspective) in the hotel room all look the way they did when they died, from their clothes to their injuries (mangled hands, run over by a car, head wound, etc.) Ben also has no visible wounds. We also know the manner in which he died was “horrible” (Vanya: 1x01) and “violent” (Klaus: 1x07), and yet his ghost looks perfectly “clean.” I’m not saying that he doesn’t have signs of his death, but some of the other ghosts are bloody or gory. Ben’s powers from what we see in the episode one leave him bloody whether from his own power or just from other people, but again, he’s very clean as a ghost. I’ll get more into this in another post, because I have a very solid headcanon on his manner of death. (inner vc: lmao look at me leaving myself and the world in such suspense ;D ) Going with my headcanon that he dies at age 17-18, they also make no effort to specify his age as a ghost (which yes, I know is intentional). But while Justin could lovingly pass for 18, he’s 10 years older, implying that Ben’s ghost has aged with them. So what makes Ben different? Is this just how Klaus sees Ben? Klaus gets high to avoid seeing spirits, and yet when he’s intoxicated, he still sees Ben. So perhaps part of this Klaus and how he perceives him, but I believe it’s both a combination of their connection and Ben having powers in general. I think Ben and Klaus were close before his death, but certainly not as close as, say, Allison and Luther. I think they grew much closer post mortem. But by “connection” I mean that I think Klaus was among those who witnessed Ben’s death (and again, I’ll go into that more when I write his death post) and that is the key to his ghost being so unique.

#[ when i blackout i'm never coming back | headcanons ]#anyway thanks for reading my essay

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twilight-sparx · 6 years

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So here is the truth. I have no problem with Càroline and Klàroline. I'm a firm believer of Ship and Let Ship (which is why I say I have no problem). However I do believe that this episode did not need to be so full of both.

I watched TVD S1 and the series finale, it never interested me because of all the high school and love triangle drama. My sister watched it which is why I knew a little bit about the characters. I remember watching a scene where Elijah broke huge glass windows with coins and telling my sister that was so cool, but if he isn't a main character I'm not watching it.

I got interested in The Originals after I watched a scene on YouTube between Marcel and Klaus from 1x01, where Marcel says "I'm not the Prince, Friend, I am the King! Show me some respect." And at this Klaus bites a vampire and says "He'll die with in a fortnight which means I've broken one of your rules Yet I cannot be killed. Whose the King now, Friend." After this I watched the first 4 episodes and I was hooked.

Hayley being pregnant didn't bother me, I mean which vampire franchise didn't have a miracle baby. I watched Hayley's scenes on TVD, and I asked my sis to give me a bit of info about the original family(they had too much scenes for me to watch all of them) on TVD.

So HERE is my problem. I've been watching The Originals because of the characters that originated and developed in this show. Yes Hayley came from TVD but she was given an introduction and storyline in TO and got a lot of character development. The Original family that had extensive background exposition on TVD were also introduced in a way that satisfied me. I watched these characters for their TO storylines not their past TVD stories.

This is why I'm finding Càroline and Klàroline a bit frustrating. The writers didn't introduce her at all how she deserved. They just expect the viewers to know the TVD storyline and everything that happened between Klaus and Càroline. This wrongful assumption is what makes me feel that I'm being force fed Klàroline.

I also find it disrespectful to the Originals And Hayley fandom that a Hayley-centric episode was used to further Klàroline especially after how little screen time Hayley got so far in S5. The writer's could've started the Klàroline road trip in the previous episode.

Not only that in this episode every other TO character was given some task that made watching the episode so frustrating. The whole Elijah scenario. The Freya and Vincent conflict, which resolved beautifully at the end. But seriously! Was the cloaking spell really so powerful that they couldn't do anything for days and only located her after she lost her werewolf side. Marcel's absence is the most profound flaw, he has been Klaus's true partner in trying to find Hayley for the past 4 episodes and NOW he is suddenly not around. And not a single mention of Rebekah and Kol since 5x01 not even a phone call of them asking how Hope was coping or about Hayley's whereabouts. Seriously the lack of communication between all these people in this season, especially This episode was just appalling. Elijah isn't there but the rest are and they all have cell phones.

I'm tagging this Anti Klàroline and Anti Càroline because even though I'm not saying its wrong and it shouldn't happen etc, I believe both needed to be introduced to The Originals in a better manner. And to be perfectly honest I may have liked those scenes if they had happened in another episode where I wasn't concerned about Hayley, Hope and Elijah. There is a time and place for every thing and THIS episode was not it.

There are a lot of things the writers could've done to make this better, to make this death easy for the fandom to swallow. But it seems that They went out of their way to make it as painful and as bad as they possibly could, destroying and disrespecting TO characters and their fandoms. (Hayley, Elijah, Halijah, Klayley, Klaus, Hope, haylope, klaylope, Marcel, Kol, Rebekah, Freya)

#anti caroline #anti klaroline #hayley marshall #klaus mikaelson #elijah mikaelson #hope mikaelson #the originals spoilers #the originals #halijah #klayley #kol mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson #freya mikaelson #marcel gerard #klaylope #haylope #what I think

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the100theory · 6 years

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The Echo, Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia of It All....

Okay, I have a theory just based off of the end of the first episode. The first episode seemed to spend a lot of time giving us parallels/callbacks to the past seasons:

Clarke swimming in the lake in a very Octavia style way from the series premiere aka 1x01 “Pilot” (also, when did she have time to learn to swim?)

Jasper’s Goggles (1x01), Maya’s iPod, and Monty’s Letter (4x01)

Lexa’s throne...if you missed this, it’s what collapsed the temple when Clarke pulled her walking stick out.

Diyoza, our new evil female badass, saying “We’re not alone.” (1x01 after Jasper got hit with the spear)

Bellamy and Echo with “Wouldn’t it be easier to step outside?” (4x13)

Octavia and Madi both being the girl from under the floor. Octavia hiding from being known since there was a one child rule. Madi hiding from the Flamekeepers so they wouldn’t find out she’s a nightblood.

Clarke driving to the music in a Raven Reyes styled manner (3x01)

The bodies were resting just like the ones from Mt Weather (2x16)

Clarke using the map skills her father taught her (1x01)

Clarke saying “I used to think that life was about more than just surviving...” (2x14) “but I’m not sure anymore. Animals don’t feel guilty when they kill. They just do it. They kill, or they get killed. I tell myself that every life I took was for a reason, but the truth is, the other side had reasons, too. The grounders, the mountain men, even ALIE—their reasons to want us dead were the same as ours. It was us or them, kill or be killed. Simple as that.” Almost similar to Bellamy’s line from season 1 to Charlotte (1x03), “You can’t afford to be weak. Down here, weakness is death, fear is death.”

Echo referring to her banishment (4x10) and how she almost killed Octavia (4x04 and 4x05)

This season started off as sort of a love letter to seasons past. It’s a soft reboot, and I can safely say that I am absolutely in love with it. It feels as if the show has completely started over, but at the same time it still feels like the same show.

My biggest theory refers to Octavia making the promise of Echo’s banishment. From the small glimpse we got of her, I am dead set that Octavia is going to take on an almost villain role. She’s sort of been spiraling down this path since 3x09 when Lincoln was murdered by Pike. My thoughts go back to when Octavia says, to Bellamy, after he discovered she was alive, “Octavia is dead. She died when you killed Lincoln.” We all know that Bellamy had nothing to do with Lincoln’s death, but since he had been an ally of Pike’s for a good portion of season three, it’s easy for the viewer to see how Octavia could have seen it that way. Octavia’s behavior from 3x09 through the small snippet we got in 5x01 is a downhill swoop. I personally thought she was going in a good direction around the time of the conclave in 4x10 through 4x13 since she seemed to have forgiven Bellamy by saying “I love you, big brother.”

Octavia seems to have had a hard time in the bunker. You know, since they have Fight Club™️. I do think that this is going to be a callback to the Culling from season 1, 1x05, since there are nearly 1,200 people down there and that amount of people was to be sustained in a five year time span (hint: they’ve been down there 1 year and 7 days longer than they should have). So, to deal with this, there’s rumors of Octavia having to take serious action. We know that Fight Club™️ is a bloodbath, and I presume our former Chancellor Jaha has been one of the victims as Isaiah Washington is leaving the show (I think he’s only in a handful of episodes). There is also rumor that to deal with population reduction, and the food shortage, Octavia and the bunker have become cannibals. It makes sense, and this season has already proved that the human race will do anything they can to survive...like eating dead bugs off the grill of your rover.

So, how does Echo factor into this? Well, she said it herself, “I was banished.” She was, and Octavia is unlikely to forget this detail. She despised Echo, and I’m sure she’ll hate her even more to know that she is alive (and sleeping with her brother....). Bellamy seems to be super chilled this season and just says “Octavia is the least of our worries.” Oh boy, do I have news for you, buddy. I think Octavia is going to be a huge threat to Echo, and honestly, I do think Echo will die this season, around the 5x10 marker just as our Azgedan King did in 4x10. We need Echo in the plot for tension, and she’s going to create a lot of it. She’s important to the Bellamy and Octavia storyline. They’ve been together for potentially three years (she said it took him three years to forgive her) and she probably helped him grieve for Clarke (romantic or not). However, her death I think will be a huge parallel to Lincoln. Octavia blamed Bellamy for Lincoln’s death and this left them on a huge out for almost two seasons. Bellamy clearly believes he’s in love with Echo, and if Octavia kills her. There’s no going back for those two. He thinks he still knows his sister, and six years is a lot of time. These are important years for a young adult. Octavia was still 17 when he went back with SpaceKru. Ages 17-25 are such important years for a human being, and it’s where we really learn who we are. I don’t think 23 year old Octavia will be changing any time in the future. The Octavia we will meet in “Red Queen” will be someone we might not love anymore. Echo’s potential death would make Bellamy hate his sister for the first time in his life, and cling onto something that isn’t his sister. His friends, as he’s already said, are his family. Clarke is now excluded, but I’m almost positive that they’ll fall back into old routines. So I see a huge role reversal between Bellamy and Octavia in the face of a loved one. Death motivated Octavia...I wonder what it will do for Bellamy post Praimfaya (we all know him after Gina...)

I also think Echo’s extremely important to the Bellamy and Clarke arc, hence why I think her death will happen later in the season. Bellamy has clearly been Clarke’s crutch for the last 2,199 Days. In the days post Praimfaya, she spent her solitary time talking into the radio praying he hears her. I’ve had people suggest that the messages aren’t just to Bellamy, but to me, it’s pretty obvious. Especially the one scene after she found the berries in Shadow Valley, “It’s been 58 Days. By now Monty should have the algae farm producing. How bad does it suck (no offense Monty).” Her messages all seem to be tailored to Bellamy, and she seems to miss him the most. We see her saying in the ruins of Arkadia, “What’s the point if all there is, is pain and suffering? Real cheerful, Clarke. I’m sorry. Ignore me, okay? I haven’t had water in two days....In case this is the last time I get to do this...please don’t feel bad about leaving me here. You did what you had to do. I’m proud of you.” This statement just screams that she is talking to Bellamy, and you can really tell she misses their conversations. She misses the comfort he gave her, and perhaps that’s why she radios him and not anyone else. This also makes me think that Echo and Bellamy is some tension between Bellamy and Clarke. They’ve had six years to think about those eight months on the ground. They haven’t said anything, but maybe feelings were realized? In the opening SpaceKru scene, we get Bellamy staring at Earth with an almost reminiscent look in his eye. He’s probably thinking about Clarke, just as he had when watching the scorching Earth in the season 4 finale. They’re clearly on each other’s minds a lot, Clarke says “God, this would be so much easier if I knew you were alive. If I knew I was gonna see you again.” And Bellamy seems to bring Clarke’s death into a lot of things, and like Clarke, he has also kept track of the time passed. So much so that every time it’s mentioned, he gets extra chores....he chooses Murphy.

Echo is very much the teetering point this season. She is going to be important to both of Bellamy’s story lines. She even asks what will they be once they get back to Earth. I think this is both to Octavia and, unknowingly at the time, Clarke. Once SpaceKru knows Clarke is alive, I’m fairly certain Echo will know she doesn’t stand a chance. We’ve had a lot of references of people noting their relationship. We don’t know what how Bellamy grieved, or what was said about Clarke during those six years, but we do know this:

Murphy knows Bellamy would do anything to save Clarke. He even said to him in 3x15, “You’re not the only one here trying to save someone you care about.” Octavia wasn’t in immediate danger, but Clarke was. This was after Bellamy said, “Clarke’s in trouble” and Murphy replied, “Clarke’s always in trouble.”

Jaha points out in 4x03 that “[Bellamy] keeps [Clarke] centered” to which Bellamy replied “[Jaha] got it backwards.”

Roan definitely knew, but never said anything

Abby asked Bellamy and Clarke to protect each other...she also knew (4x12)

Raven, As ALIE, said to Bellamy “Too bad you were never that devoted to Gina” (3x11).

Monty knew. He was there for two different instances. Bellamy saying in 3x02: “I CANT LOSE CLARKE....we can’t lose her.” And Bellamy saying in 4x13: “I left her behind. I left her behind, and we all die anyway.” Both those lines just break my heart.

I really think they’re using Echo as a catalyst this season. Her presence will change things, and I think she may even give us Bellarke. We didn’t see Bellamy and Echo become a thing, nor did we see them truly interact until the end of 5x01. Therefore, we don’t have any real attachment to them as we do with Bellamy and Clarke. Jason Rothenberg, the show runner, even said that this is Bellamy and Clarke’s story. So, when Bellamy says “nothing is gonna change on the ground,” we know that shit is about to go down. Long story short: “It’s gonna be a bumpy ride!”

#the 100 #the 100 theory #bellamy blake #echo #echo kom azgeda #octavia blake #clarke griffin #wonkru #bellarke #the 100 analysis #5x01 theory #season 5 theory #Eden theory

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destielshippingnews · 3 years

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Edvard's Supernatural Guide: 1x03 Dead in the Water

An updated version of this analysis is available on my new blog here

This week I'll be discussing Lake Manitoc as a metaphor, trauma, and Dean's knack with children. 1x03 Dead in the Water is the first episode not written by Kripke or directed by Nutter, and it would have been a better second episode than the relatively weak and predictable 1x02 Wendigo. The writers for this episode are Sera Gamble (she who loves soap opera drama, Sam, and single mums with troubled kids) and her writing partner Raelle Tucker (the better writer of the two, and apparently more of a Dean fan than Sera), and they do a solid but not perfect job with the script.

Supernatural was also one of director Kim Manners’ last big projects before his untimely death from cancer in 2009. His body of work includes a handful of Star Trek episodes and a lot of The X-Files. Nobody at this point should be surprised by comparisons between Supernatural and The X-Files (nor with Buffy/Angel, for that matter, a show Supernatural was commissioned to replace on the WB network). A lot of the similarities come from Kim Manners linking the two, working as he did as both director and executive producer, His directing style evokes an older age of genre television shows, with the early shot through the leaves at the young girl swimming in the lake invoking the sense of something lurking, waiting and watching for its moment in a very 1990s way that pleases me greatly.

This episode also marks the beginning of Jensen’s tutelage under Kim Manners, a relationship largely responsible for Jensen eventually taking up Kim’s mantle and directing a handful of Supernatural episodes later in the series. An effect of Kim’s tutelage is also Jensen’s self-confessed habit of trying to see his own performances as a director would.

Speaking of Jensen, this episode is also the one where he stated he began to get a real grip on Dean’s character. In her review of this episode, Paula R. Stiles discusses the parallels between Jensen’s own well-documented shyness (entirely at odds with people’s expectations of such a confident, talented man) and the revelation of Dean’s own childhood trauma and connections with Lucas. Funnily enough, this is also the episode where I truly begin to see the Dean I know as Jensen takes him away from Kripke’s womanising dude-bro sidekick into what I (completely without bias, of course) see as the true driving force behind the show’s success.

But first, I discussed the location in 1x02 Wendigo being a weird choice to have a wendigo, wendigo being by the show’s own admission native to Minnesota and North Michigan (wendigo are Yoopies), and here we have an episode taking place in Wisconsin, literally on the other side of the river from Minnesota to the west and sharing a border with Upper Michigan to the northeast. This is wendigo country, so why could 1x02 not have been set here? That was a silly choice, Kripke.

That aside, the location of this episode provides a nice continuation of the elements theme that has been building up over the previous episodes: fire played a prominent role in 1x01, and earth or the forest in 1x02, with the water in 1x03 being the third of the four elements (see 1x04 for air). The symbology of things hiding beneath the surface ready to drag people down to their deaths is more relevant and useful symbology, however, whether or not it was intentional. People are being dragged to their deaths by things their fathers and grandfathers buried in the lake and kept hidden, like generational trauma. This is interesting symbology as a one shot (and once more referring to Paula R. Stiles, has Lovecraftian flavours to it) but when applied to the boys – Dean in particular, who is this episode’s POV character – it’s a stark statement on things hiding in the depths of his mind that he tries to keep hidden.

Not for the last time, but since the show makes little secret of its Stephen King connections (2x09 being a particularly obvious example) I’m reminded of The Overlook Hotel in The Shining, a symbolic manifestation of the Jack Torrence’s mind and the memories of his drunk and abusive father haunting him. The demons, of course – as in the best of King’s work – are metaphorical ones. I rarely lose sleep because of werewolves or spider-demons from the primordial abyss, but mental health problems are another story altogether… I posit, dear reader, that Lake Manitoc serves as a representation of the families’ minds and the things they can’t face or deal with openly. It is also a reflection of Dean’s mind, make explicit by his association and empathy with Lucas: the episode is overtly about Dean and Sam stopping the ghost killing people, but it's covertly about Dean beginning to face his own issues and perhaps rescue a part of his inner child that would otherwise be dragged down and drowned by monsters.

Dean’s admission to Lucas in this episode that he experienced selective mutism after his mum died is one of the first big moments marking a change in how he’s portrayed and how the audience should perceive him. The new perspective on him in this episode isn’t in conflict with the other parts of his personality, but add a lot of depth. In her review of this episode, Paula R Stiles discusses at length how Dean’s confident, witty, sexualised personality could be a result of him learning how to hide his trauma as a child and keep others from getting too close, essentially a coping mechanism. Hiding underneath the surface of Jock!Dean (not Scottish!Dean) is the traumatised child waiting to drag him down and drown him.

This is not something he is oblivious to. It seems to be just me and Paula R Stiles up here on the Dean Is Intelligent hill, but his knack with children is partially due to his own awareness of his tribulations as a child. The prologue of 1x01 showed us that Dean didn’t actually see Mary burn up on the ceiling, but if we take his statement less literally it’s not much less horrific to know he saw his house burn with his mother inside when he was four years old. He’s very much in touch with the part of himself wounded by that experience, even if he almost never feels able to share it with anybody because a) John didn’t care and b) he doesn’t really trust Sam with it.

That he talks so freely about it with Lucas might seem contrary to this, but it’s trauma-bonding to form a rapport and a link of some kind with Lucas by sharing a relatable experience with hi,. In doing so, Dean lets Lucas know he doesn’t have to go through it all alone (as Dean did), but does not put any pressure on him to do or say anything he doesn’t want to do. An effective trick, if ‛trick’ is even the correct word, as Lucas is shown to trust Dean and even look for comfort in him by a) drawing him a picture of the house and b) grabbing Dean’s arm and wanting comfort from Dean rather than his mum or the sheriff when finding out Bill Carlton’s death on the lake.

This is in complete contrast to Sam’s claim at the beginning of the episode that Dean doesn’t like children. From a production perspective, it’s likely the writers didn’t have a complete idea of who Dean was or what they wanted to do with him this early in the show, but from the characters’ perspective it suggests Sam doesn’t know Dean very well at all.

The comment in question was in reference to Dean’s supposed attempt to engage in coitus with Andrea by saying ‛kids are the best’. Whether or not this is what he was actually doing (it would be incredibly insensitive and single-minded to try to pick up a newly-widowed mum like that) is debatable, but I come down on the side of not. As will be made abundantly clear in subsequent episodes such as 1x11 Scarecrow, Dean is all kinds of socially inept (that tends to happen when you grow up with no friends) and his line here seemed more like a feeble attempt to begin a dialogue with Andrea about something she clearly cared about and that they could bond over. After all, Dean did raise Sam mostly by himself. Even Sam himself admits to Andrea that Dean isn't giving her ‛the Jerry MacGuire act’ by being nice to Lucas.

Andrea’s smackdown of Dean after he says ‛kids are the best’ therefore doesn’t give me the chuckles. I understand from her perspective he looks like what the Americans call a horndog, but it was unnecessary. I was happy to see Amy Acker in the show, even though it was only for one episode, and I didn’t dislike her character, but Andrea was a bit bland. I expect the choice of actress was likely to try to draw in fans of Angel which finished only about 16 months before Supernatural began, and this is far from the last time a Buffyverse actor will make an appearance on the show.

Speaking of the episode’s one-shot characters, it was far too obvious that the sheriff was hiding something. Paula R. Stiles’ review of the episode discusses his skepticism being a tad too exaggerated in this episode (and reminds me of Leoben in 1x02), especially for a policeman: in her experience, emergency service workers etc tend to be a little more open to weird explanations because of all the weird and traumatic stuff they see. The end result is the sheriff is obviously guilty of something, especially when effectively running the boys out of town. This is a mistake repeated in 1x11 Scarecrow when the police run Dean out of the little town in Indiana.

The plot of the episode revolves around the sheriff and the secrets he’s hiding, secrets which gets his family killed. It also brings to mind generational trauma, or just trauma and loss, grief and guilt that last a lifetime (both in the residents and Dean). There is also little justice in this episode, and no satisfying conclusion. Certainly the men guilty of killing the boy die, and their punishment is commensurate with the seriousness of their crime, but is it justice for an adult to pay penance for crimes committed as a stupid child? And there is no justice whatsoever in their children and grandchildren being killed to punish them. In addition, the viewer does not know what happened to the ghost after killing the sheriff. Did it disappear, or was it still there after the lake was drained?

This is not the best episode of the show, but it is definitely atmospheric and leaves the viewer with questions. Sam was largely absent in 1x03, not the best idea if we’re supposed to identify with him and follow things from his perspective. However, it takes a huge step forwards in its portrayal of Dean in particular; if he were portrayed as the horny 18 year old in a 26 year old’s body for longer than two episodes, it’d be harder to get behind him, physical beauty notwithstanding.

Aside from his affinity for children (and children’s affinity for him), the other thing that stood out to me in this episode was Dean’s association with Mary, and I’ll have MUCH more to say on his association with Mary in later episodes. This first contribution from Kim Manners was a welcome episode, focusing on Dean and adding depth to him. Unlike last week, I’m not in a rush to leave this installment, but 1x04 Phantom Traveler introduces an important bit of lore into the Supernatural universe in another episode reminiscent of The X-Files.

#SPN Rewatch #spn 1x03 #Supernatural #Dean WInchester #Sam Winchester #the overlook hotel #symbology #metaphors #edvard's supernatural guide

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multi-screencap · 3 years

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#Manner of Death #modedit #Great Sapol #Inspector M #MoD 1x01 #MoD Season 1

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koriginaladdict · 7 years

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supernatural

Send me a show/fandom and ill answer - Top 5 favourite characters: Castiel / pre S5 Dean / Sam / Meg / Balthazar

Other characters you like: Ruby 1.0 / Meg / Rowena / Donna / Kevin / Adam ...

Least favourite characters: Lucifer, Dean On s6+...

Otps: MEGSTIEL, Hanstiel, Sam/Eileen Dean/Lisa (On s3)

Notps: DESTIEL!!!! Can’t stand it, also Sabriel and Especially Samifer

Favourite friendships: Sastiel, Calthazar, TFW in a perfect world, Sam/Meg

Favourite family: The Angels

Favourite episodes: 1x01 Mystery Spot, The prison ep, 4x16 6x20 that s2 ep when jo joins dean in her first hunt (the first spn ep i watched when i was a kid)

Favourite season/book/movie: S1/2/3 were the best

Favourite quotes: the only time cas got to express how unfairly he’s treated “I’m doing my best, under impossible circumstances, my friends they abandon me, turn against me, it’s difficult to understand”

Best musical moment: “HEAT OF THE MOMENT!!!!!” But also every time there’s an AC/DC soundtrack

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest: I was such a fangirl over dean, too many scenes to remember one in particular, but for cas it’s definitively 6x22 that was a huge turn on, how powerful he felt, the mannerism the low voice...

When it really disappointed you: SEASON 6, dean disappointed me so much then s7 happened and he became irredeemable in my eyes, sorry you can’t be the most ungrateful bastard to exist, bully the man who sacrificed so much for you when he’s at his lowest and expect me to overlook how awful you are

Saddest moment: Dean’s death on 3x16 I cried so much

Most well done character death: Dean’s

Favourite guest star: Rachel Miner

Favourite cast member: Misha Collins

Character you wish was still alive: hard to choose, the cas girl says Balthazar but the megstiel trash says meg

One thing you hope really happens: CAS TO BE HAPPY, APPRECIATED and RESPECTED but that’s too much asked

Most shocking twist: Ruby turning on sam in s4 finale

When did you start watching/reading?: accidently when I was 7, very late at night my parents fell asleep and i wasn’t, so after bones came supernatural and I became addicted right away

Best animal/creature: Angels

Favourite location: Heaven

Trope you wish they would stop using: BRINGING DOWN CAS TO PROP UP THE CHARACTERS THEY LIKE (THE BROS AND MARY)

One thing this show/book/film does better than others: On s1-2-3 I’d say, have a compelling show, badass, funny, with amazing family bond without turning it into a ship fest, I really loved that aspect of spn

Funniest moments: Too many to choose, cas getting drunk, “I’m batman” “I lost my shoe”

Couple you would like to see: Megstiel

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast: Tyler hoechlin playing an angel, friend to cas

Favourite outfit: Cas’ original trench coat

Favourite item: Does the impala count?

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?: nope

Most boring plotline: BMOL, Mark of cain

Most laughably bad moment: how the bros completely forgot about adam and a stranger had to remind them of who he is!!!

Best flashback/flashfoward if any: 4x03 young mary

Most layered character: Cas/Sam/Dean (when he’s not a douche)

Most one dimensional character: LUCIFER!!! all he does is whine

Scariest moment: i forgot

Grossest moment: 5x14 when they were dealing with famine

Best looking male: Sam winchester definitively, even tho i liked dean better in early seasons

Best looking female: Meg 2.0, Ruby 1.0, Rowena, pamela, too hard to choose

Who you’re crushing on (if any): Castiel

Favourite cast moment: Harlem shake

Favourite transportation: IMPALA

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise): Cas standing alone in heaven 6x20

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you: We’re gonna spend years discussing those

Best promo: The one with cas, wings and black trench coat, a pity there’s no HD version

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book: the second i first saw it

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