#There will be enough exposition from s4 that they will have enough time for a byler confession without it feeling rushed

[hawkinsunderground]

every time i start to feel like i'm deluding myself about byler happening, i give myself a reality check using the classic 'if they were all straight' scenario, and then i stop doubting. if everything remained the same--same relationships, same dynamics with friends--with the only difference in the show being that Will was a girl, it's almost painfully obvious. And because all a m/f couple has to do is be in the vicinity of each other to get shipped, byler probably would have been more popular even in the earlier seasons.

Mike spending an entire season right by his girl best friend's side, desperate to help and fighting to stay near her as she slowly gets possessed. Then at the end of it all he gives her a whole speech crying and saying that choosing to be friends with her was the best thing he's ever done? I guarantee you even with milkvan developing a bunch of people would have jumped on the byler train, and more others would be thinking that Mike and Willow or whatever would eventually get together later on, with warring opinions on who the better ship is.

Mike neglecting his girl best friend who is now hinted to have a crush on him in s3 while trying to get over being kidnapped and everything she went through? Spending all his time with Eleven even though byler had just been so close the season prior. There's no way at least some ppl wouldn't be thinking romance. The whole 'Mike's probably repressing his feelings and pushing Will away because he's scared' idea that a lot of bylers believe suddenly wouldn't be a reach anymore if it was a straight pairing.

Sectioning the two of them off to have their little cali romance all the while hinting at serious relationship troubles and conflicting character arcs for Mike and Eleven. Meanwhile the shrouded love confession from 'Willow', the obvious flirting. You can't look me in the eyes and tell me that people wouldn't be losing their shit during the entire apology scene if Will was a girl. The flirty smiles, the "I didn't say it." "You didn't have to.", the intimacy of his apology to 'Willow' in comparison to the apology from Mike to Lucas in s1. Along with all of the other scenes where Mike is clearly different with 'Willow' compared to the rest of his friends, he's always near her, etc.

Atp I feel like the general consensus would be that they're setting up a Melvin breakup and Byler endgame. Mike putting his hand on Willow's shoulder and promising they'll get through this together while literally showing Midleven crashing and burning in the same scene? In one of the final scenes? You're gonna tell me that people wouldn't be thinking along the lines of romance, with the love triangle pointing in byler's favor?

Mike's 'love' confession would come across as the lie that it was and a lot of people would probably be saying that Mike is not confronting his true feelings. They would be drawing the same comaprisons we are--that it didn't even work and the gates opened, that his (girl) best friend had to tell him and guide him to confess to Eleven, with them finally as close as they were around s2 again and Melvin not even really getting back together, with clear issues still present in the finale. The direction they are going to take things in s5 would become obvious without the straight goggles blinding people to some of the most obvious character and relationship arcs that have been done a million times.

The only difference would be the lack of struggle due to homophobia and would probably be more centered on Mike's inability to confront his feelings due to a fear of messing things up between himself and Will, along with losing el because he doesn't love her the way she wants him to, keeping to the core of his character in either scenario

You're gonna tell me that if people saw this and it was mike's girl best friend sitting next to him, they wouldn't be jumping at a romance arc between the two of them?

or his reaction to them being friends again, a smile and voice we've never seen used with any other character, noticably different?

the physical proximity, the fact that they seem equally flirtatious and affected by the other despite Will being the only one with confirmed feelings atp it's too obvious--if it were a girl sitting next to mike people would definitely be drawing some conclusions Anyway, byler endgame

#byler #will byers #mike wheeler #byler analysis #byler brainrot #stranger things #I mean they even set the stage with all the emotional buld-up and explanation so that next season when everything is fast paced #There will be enough exposition from s4 that they will have enough time for a byler confession without it feeling rushed #these new crumbs have seriously refreshed my byler/stranger things obsession i swear lol

[captain-hen]

whenever i rewatch 2x01, i'm always amazed at what a great job this episode does in introducing eddie and maddie as main characters, telling us key facts about them without too much exposition or revealing too much in general; all the while managing to balance the rest of the ensemble so we know what's going on with them. and the way maddie and eddie are introduced are tailored to fit their respective characters.

with maddie, she's still very isolated at this point—for obvious reasons. so we actually get to see her POV for her scenes, and we learn some important details about her: 1) she's buck's older sister, 2) there's a significant age gap between them, 3) she and buck are not on good terms with their parents, 4) she's on the run from an abusive relationship, 5) although she hasn't been in contact with buck for three years, she still feels safe enough to run to him, telling us what a deep bond they actually have, 6) she used to be a nurse.

(most of these facts about their childhood that we can glean in 2x01 aren't even expounded on until s4, btw. but i think it's still pretty impressive how the seeds were planted so early on, that, yeah, it wasn't a shock to find out that the buckley parents were neglectful, or that maddie was basically parentified.)

with eddie, it's completely different. i don't think we get a single scene of his from his POV in 2x01, actually—every scene of his is told from the perspective of the characters around him. at this point, we still don't know some of the most important aspects of his character—he's a father, his marriage is failing. but we're still told some very essential facts that form the basis of his character: 1) he was in the army, but he's clearly not proud of his service/doesn't like bringing it up unless it's to help him at work, 2) he's charming and personable enough that he's able to win over the firefam—with the exception of buck—almost instantly, in a way no other new addition to the 118 ever has, 3) he clearly values teamwork and wants to get to know his coworkers—his focus on trying to win buck over is indicative of this, 4) he not only willingly put himself in a dangerous situation with the grenade, but also trusted buck implicitly right away, which suggests that despite the responsible and sensible impression he gives off, he has a hidden tendency for impulsivity—and we now know he does.

idk, all of this to say that i just...really appreciate this episode and how well it handled the introduction of these two characters. it's never an easy thing to pull off, particularly in an already packed ensemble cast. but they handled it beautifully, and i still remember how impressed i was while watching it for the first time.

#neethu speaks

[arthurtaylorlester]

malevolent season 4 was... something, that's for sure

i want to preface this by saying i LOVE malevolent as a show and this is no means an attack on the creator or anything like that, i don't think i'll ever stop listening halfway, no matter how i feel about it. i'm not saying season 4 is all bad either.

it is a deviation for malevolent, though i found it VERY well written up until part 31 (and part 31 is my favourite malevolent episode ever)

s4 started off really strong for me, part 29 set the tone really well, much lighter after s3's emotional lows. the butcher was an interesting enough new villain to put yarson aside for now. part 30 had some charming moments, but the real star of the early season was part 31, a truly incredibly written and directed look into arthur's psychology. it truly gave us everything, from lore to highly comedic moments (to me)(no because why was arthur dreaming of waking up next to a shirtless man who tried to kill him)

parts 32 through 34 i'm not sure about, but i can write them off as awkward mid season points. part 34 was an interesting shift in perspective, but here is where my doubt's about the season's villains started rising

but the oscar & scratch arcs.... guys i'm gonna be honest, i might be oscar's #1 hater

scratch and oscar in this season were functionally useless filler. it's not unusual for arthur and john get sidetracked during their missions, but it usually ends up leading them right where they need to be by the season finale. this felt like a parenthesis that killed any tension created by the butcher.

this season had, quite unnecessarily, 3 antagonists. now this wouldn't be a terrible idea, had they been established before. but no. for some reason it was chosen to leave the only villain we could genuinely be afraid of alone, in favour of introducing not one but two antagonists yet to be established. neither because of this have the adequate fear factor (the butcher is better about this) and both get the most abysmal ends i could've imagines. what do you mean scratch is just gone like that after causing some emotional conflict with his deal. what do you mean the butcher was KOed by the fucking priest with a bedpan? what? that's it? you expect me to be scared or even care about the butcher now?

speaking of the priest. i want to like oscar i really do but. he's a terribly written character. we get to know him while arthur is teaching john intimidation tactics so out of gate our initial impression of him is as someone meek. and then in part 36 after "sorting out" the butcher, oscar just dumps out his trauma point blank to someone he's spoken to a handful of times in the past 3? 4? days.

malevolent in general has a bit of an exposition problem, but it usually works out if it's john expositing because. that's literally all he can do. but when a character with more agency do it, it makes them flat. oscar didn't have to tell us all that, he didn't have a reason. arthur confessing to 7 murders isn't a prompt to make himself vulnerable like that. i did not start caring for him, just because he had a tragic backstory. that's... not how you get someone to care about a character. oscar could be defined as a static character, and while it's not too unusual for a static character to be the focal point of an arc, i don't think it works the way most authors think it does.

also the worms in the farm only happened because of him messing with the stove so like. that's not helping his case.

the completely unnecessary farm arc concluded, we return oscar to the hospital, with arthur caving very quickly to john's demands if he truly cared about oscar so much. and so, a single episode before the finale, we get properly acquainted our main ally for the showdown. a choice definitely, but i feel like this one worked out pretty well considering noel had time to simmer before we got know of his past + he had interesting conflict with john and arthur.

and then there's the big one, the thing that appalls me entirely. leaving larson and yellow, the main villains of the finale COMPLETELY alone until the very end. why? why would you choose to not use them earlier? we spent so much time away from larson, so we weren't really as scared of him as we were at the end of part 28 (i literally was listening to the last 15 minutes of this ep on my toes because i thought he might do something) and we had had no CHANCE to even fear yellow, since we knew nothing of his power?

and what, the butcher is on our side now because noel granted his release? just like that? i know he's a contract killer but arthur insulted him to his face, he can believe they understand each other but did he feel no anger?

the finale did well, considering the context it was given to work with, though i did not understand the point of the memory thing... that didn't go anywhere? because not arthur nor noel actually lost anything. we don't know what the box was for, we only know some guy wrote "the birth of my son" on slip of paper and put it in. arthur assumed it was a memory, when it just as well could've been a literal offering, arthur assumed it would involve losing said memory, and they assumed it was related. initially i thought it would only go through if the ritual took place, which, it didn't. but reading back here is no further clarification on it. hold your angst horses, blindfaith enjoyers

i feel like john physically manifesting, if now an established power of his, was very cheap. unless it was a one-off, or some sort of power up, it just literally took away the main premise of the show. an all-powerful god rendered powerless by being stuck in some guy's mind and being forced to confront the troubles of someone infinitesimal to him. if you let him astral project and save people, then what's the point?

but i do actually think it was a one-off, so we'll see how it goes

simply put, john saving arthur when he jumped in s3 had more impact than this because he did it with a single, human, hand. no magic.

it was pleasant to have kayne and his expected chaos back, jarring as always. john's deal was exactly what we all thought it was going to be, maybe more about himself than arthur, but i don't think anyone can fault him for that.

one things though, and this questions may just be me not remembering, is arthur supposed to know that yellow is a separate entity from john when they realise larson has him in his head? because i remember arthur just assuming that 'yellow' just had all of his memories returned in part 23, and therefore not knowing that he's a separate guy from john.

just in general, i feel like s4 had a LOT of good ideas that weren't given enough room to breathe and therefore weren't written very well that really weighed down my enjoyment of the season. that's not to say there weren't things i liked. the emotional moments hit just as hard, like reconciling with daniel, the comedy was on point (genuinely this season was so funny) and even the most out of pocket thing arthur has ever said, calling john a child, no matter how much discourse it caused, was actually sort of in character for him? i mean arthur is an asshole so like i get why his immediate reaction to his severely emotionally unintelligent friend being possessive is babying him. they're awful people. they deserve each other. it made somewhat sense in retrospect.

all this to say, while i didn't hate s4, i think it had a lot of writing issues, especially when comparing it to the other 3, and it could've been done WAYY better but hey we all have our moments.

i await anxiously intermezzo's public release and the rest of season 5 👀

#if there are any mistakes please point them out haha! #and if you have any counterarguments i'll gladly hear them #always down for a debate :) #malevolent #malevolent podcast #malevolent critical #malevolent neg #< in case #masked #harlan if you see this it's on YOU #arthur lester #john doe #oscar malevolent #collins malevolent #the butcher malevolent #mr scratch #detective noel #charlie dowd #wallace larson #yellow malevolent #the king in yellow #kayne malevolent #unhinged aromantics

[woadisme]

st5 theory: el finds vecna in will’s mind!

This is a theory for how El will enter Will’s mind to find Vecna at the beginning of st5, and how that might play out with Will’s powers getting revealed. I’m not sure if it will make total sense but hopefully enough sense for other people to weigh in!

Recently I’ve seen some videos (from @_stfaves on tiktok go check it out fr!!) about how they have already filmed part of s5 in which Will gets cursed. The highlights from those videos is that Noah was filming in his finale outfit at Rink-O-Mania, Lonnie’s actor was at s4 table reads, and ofc the infamous picture Noah posted wearing a harness with his finale outfit. This points to him getting cursed and reliving the events at Rink-O-Mania and the abuse from his father, before the time jump. In fact, it would have to occur on the same day that the Cali gang returns to Hawkins, because of his attire.

However, when we left off in s4, Vecna’s base of operations was pretty badly destroyed, he was badly burned, and Will said that he was “hurting.” Basically, Vecna is wounded and the place from which he attacks is unusable. Plus, he wouldn’t have any apparent reason to curse Will like that, since the purpose of cursing the other victims was to open gates. Or, at least, it doesn’t seem as though he will strike again just 2 days later, while he is wounded.

Now that our team knows that Vecna is still around but he is badly hurt, I think that they will want to strike back as soon as possible, to prevent Vecna from rebounding at all. That is when Will or El proposes that she looks for the piece of the Mindflayer/Vecna that is in Will. We have already seen El do this with Billy in s3. (Bonus if we get protective Mike again, this time not wanting to put Will in danger, plus worried that Vecna will be able to find them like Billy did.)

So I imagine that El’s search in Will’s mind plays out very similarly to what we saw with Billy. I was rewatching that episode recently, and it really reminded me of what we know of Vecna’s mind from s4. I couldn’t find screenshots of when he was skimming through various people’s trauma before Patrick gets a nosebleed, so just look at the scene with Max compared Billy’s mind.

It’s the red and the darkness and the smoke and the lightning… Plus, now we know the reason that El had to encounter these moments of trauma for Billy. That is where Vecna thrives, how he targets his victims. Max says herself that he uses people’s memories against them, but only their darkest ones. She says, “It’s like he only sees the darkness in us.” So, as El goes to find him in Will, it makes sense for her to witness some of his past trauma, likely from his dad.

However, this does not explain Will’s finale outfit at Rink-O-Mania. This is where my theory might get a little bit sloppy but hear me out. Will gets Vecna’d from within his own mind. This will take a lot of exposition to explain.

This relies on the assumption that Will has had powers from the beginning. I think they must have occurred spontaneously, or however 001’s happened. That is, his powers didn’t come from 001 like El’s did. He is special, but his powers (if he has them) are obviously dormant. There were some weird things going on in s1 during his time in the Upside Down, but it’s not clear what his powers actually are. I think that Vecna knows, or has suspicions, so he formed an incredibly strong psychic connection with Will when he took him and kept him in the Upside Down. I think his goal with the Mindflayer was to control Will without killing him. Vecna says that all of his victims are still in his mind, but he wanted El’s power externally. He wanted her to join him, so he probably needs her strength. If he could get that from Will without having to convince him, by simply taking over his mind, that would be ideal. And, although the Mindflayer was exorcized at the end of s2, Will still shares a psychic connection with Vecna.

Thus, the manifestation of Vecna in his mind, I assume, will be a bit different. It doesn’t have a hold on Will’s behavior, but I think it could be actively suppressing his powers. When El finds it, she will see the red smoke, the traumatic memories, but the eye of the storm will not be a location, like Brimborn Steelworks in Billy’s mind. I’m not sure what it would be exactly, but I think it is a perfect opportunity to draw another parallel with this scene!

The key of this part is that El’s interaction with the Demogorgon was the catalyst for the gate opening. So I think that El interacting with whatever exists inside Will will be a catalyst for Will having his Vecna moment. Suddenly he is thrust into his own worst memories, rises from the ground like Max did, is literally suffocated by his own trauma until something breaks. Not his bones, but whatever is suppressing his powers. Remember that focusing on a memory that makes someone angry and sad is what strengthened the power and control of 001 and El? I think that Will’s powers are tangled up in all that mess and El disturbing that releases Will’s powers. Just like her disturbing the Demogorgon created a path between the Upside Down and Hawkins.

#it's all about the psychic connections #then maybe a time skip for el to help will learn how to use his powers? #maybe this weakens vecna even more so that is why they have time? #idk how they are going to explain 3ish years of nothing happening in the apocalypse but I'm excited #side note what if el finds out that will loves mike while she's in his mind #bro oh my fucking god #byler #she sees the 'it's not my fault you don't like girls' scene?? #oh no #stranger things #will byers #will Byers has powers #eleven #vecna stranger things #st5 #stranger things theory

[akatsukiky]

Monkie Kid x Ninjago AU

Because why settle for one favorite Lego cartoon when you could have 3 2! (o7 Legend of Chima)

The focus is on Traffic Light Trio (or Chimera Shipping, Dragonfruit Shipping + MK, or Spicynoodles Shipping + Mei; completely uty interpretation) in the world of Ninjago, specifically my personal favorite season: The Tournament of Elements. Lots of hijinks (or Monkeying Around). There’s also potential for two B Plots, one in which the Masters of Shadow go toe to toe in the early hours of the main story (read: Shade gets his ass kicked by Macaque) and then the main three get a bit of an audience (who is just generally unhelpful as usual). The other B Plot is back in the normal world in which the Parents of the group (SWK, Pigsy, Tang, Sandy) and Bai He realize that MK, Mei, Red Son, and Macaque are all missing then start trying to figure out what happened.

I’m not very good at sustaining a writing mood long enough to write a fic but if someone wants to use the concepts for their own work, please go for it!!!! All I ask is that you drop me a link so I can read along :)

Non S4 compliant (but I’m not sure if anything that happens during it really changes anything??? Just to be safe)

Before getting into it, I’ll be going by the idea that Traffic Light Trio are all biologically 17 (give or take). Red is obviously way way older than that but I want them to be close to the Ninja’s ages so it’s less 17 yo Kai talking to the way more immature 21 yo MK.

So! Plot! Yeah!

Exposition on the concept of other worlds/dimensions adjacent to one’s own (supported by the existence of the Celestial Realm and the underworld), likely being mentioned by Mr. Tang. Probably mentioned other realms/dimensions/worlds connected to JTTW and Ninjago + the Traveller’s Tree/Tea. MK’s curiosity is piqued and he’s really curious about the whole idea of other worlds as a happy young adult who never A) watched The Lego Movie(s), B) Played Lego Dimensions or Disney Infinity, and C) witnessed the UTMV. Sillies aside he and Mei go off to go try and find Red Son who they know can successfully cross worlds with his powers.

When they do find Red Son, he’s in a pretty bad mood (or at least one that’s mildly worse than usual) on account of a large reptile stunk up his current/temp workshop in the city and left its shedding inside. If they try to ask for him to do it then, he’ll definitely wave them off and say he’s too busy which leads into all three of them looking for the snake.

They find it at that exit from SQ’s lair that MK first met LBD inside of. Trauma that gets immediately suppressed??? Angst with immediate comfort from supportive friends??? Nice. Regardless, they find pieces of shedding and tracks that lead them to the conclusion that the reptile is a serpent and has yet to come back. The huge snake comes back then and starts chasing them down the tunnel but there’s no end in sight. Slowly the tunnel starts changing from sewer system to catacomb and when Tradfic Light Trio does emerge, they’re not in their city or their world anymore. Instead they’re in the underground area of Chen’s Island and face to face with Clouse.

While the trio is reasonably confused and alarmed, Clouse gets on his gaslighting. The rundown is essentially that Chen + Clouse found a spell in the spell book they used for the Tournament Power Drainy = Anacondrai thingy that allows suitably powerful entities to rip holes in space-time. Because it opened a gateway but couldn’t be used to summon specific entities, they couldn’t use it to get the Anacondrai out since it would have trapped them inside (or something). So instead they had opened the gateway with the intention of getting something reasonably powerful/mystical through and, because of that, Clouse was 100% ready to act all cordial.

So like I said, Clouse gets on his manipulate mansplain malewife-ing. He hails them as Great Beings (Mata Nui moment) from a different world who Master Chen had hailed here in hopes of finding worthy competitors for his Tournament. MK and Mei jump on that pretty fast (because woah! Cool! A tournament!) and Red is a lot less enthusiastic because he has enough sense to tell when something’s a blatant trap. However, someone (it can be MK, Mei, or Clouse) eggs him on so obviously now he has to get into it because his pride and Honor is on the line. Once they all agree to join, Clouse calls back his snake thing (which definitely startled the trio and they’re very much all “THATS your pet??!?!?!?”) which also shuts the gateway to the LMK world.

Clouse starts leading them through the catacombs to go meet Chen and, as they go, he proposes a “little exchange of information” where he will tell MK and them whatever they want abt the Ninjago world in exchange for info on the LMK world. Mei + Red aren’t too trusting of that but before they really voice their thoughts, MK agrees (to their mild chagrin).

Little note here abt Clouse’s early interactions with the trio. It’s very much about feeling out who is the easiest to manipulate in what way: who’s the most naïve, who has something to prove, who can be cut from the chain by being told that they’re the weak link? In this way he can move them as he likes, just like he and Chen did with all the Elemental Masters in canon.

The information exchange from Clouse’s side is pretty basic as far as Ninjago lore goes. He mentions FSM and Overlord + Elemental Masters and the Cursed Realm. In return this prompts MK to talk about LMK’s cosmogony (or what he knows about it, meaning “like the Big Bonk and stuff”) which Red Son corrects as needed (like with the actual cosmogonic story from JTTW). Then MK gets into SWK, the Journey (in broad OSP-flavored strokes), and Wukong’s retirement (AGAIN to Red’s chagrin, stop talking about how your dad beat up his dad >:/). From there he explains how each of their powers tie to their mentor/ancestor/parents from the Journey but when he starts chatting about the True Fire, Red + Mei interrupt to ask about Chen.

Clouse dodges the question by actually introducing them to Chen who, in turn, dissolves any attempts at interrogation by acting like a senile goofball whenever someone levels a semi-serious question at him. Any sillier, less important questions get immediate answers. Eventually (right when Red is about to start swinging) he calls for food! Chen’s Noodles! This gets MK immediately and he sits to eat, Mei following suit after he’s had a few bites and Red even more hesitantly. (Put a pin in this, ties back to rich/royalty kid conditioning that This Could Be Poisoned, brought up later). MK absolutely slanders Chen’s recipe by saying Pigsy’s is waaaaaaaay better but that this isn’t as bad as the Speedy Panda ‘food.’ Chen asks for tips because evil Wizard guy he may be, he wants good profits from his company efforts. While they get into that, Red and Mei take stock of the room for exits, elevation, and just generally anything they can use to help in a fight because Chen and Clouse are incredibly suspect. (Which does help later with the Jade Blades!) MK is blasting through bowls of the noodles btw, his stomach has got to be bottomless because he’s not even acting like he’s anywhere near full.

Eventually they finish eating and MK (awkwardly) asks if they can go. Clouse shuts that down right away because “the Tournament” and they can go home afterward, if they leave now they’ll forfeit immediately. Very reluctantly, MK agrees that they could stay for the tournament.

From there it gets a little episodic? Kinda vignette-y? They’re staying at Chen’s Island for a few days before the Tournament so it’s mostly little tidbits about that.

As mentioned before there’s the “This Food Could Be Poisoned” thing that Mei and Red talk abt at some point, relating some near misses and how they learned to deal with it (according to Mei, MK can put just about anything short of actual poison in his stomach without getting too sick). Because of the situation, they do tell MK to be a bit mindful abt eating the stuff Chen gives him (which sticks for all of five seconds bc Chen’s implementing Pigsy’s tricks for better noodles as told by MK).

There’s a bit about MK feeling homesick and missing his Dads. Mei’s used to not always being around her parents because they always went off to work trips or she would run away from home to be at MK’s place once she was old enough. Plus, after she got her sword, she feels like she’s never really that far from her family. Red’s more than old enough to cope with not being around his parents, esp since once of them was locked away for hundreds of years (which is a very salty topic). Beyond that, they both were separated from their parents during ROTSQ and S3, so it doesn’t really phase them like it does MK. He’s always had Tang and Pigsy, even in the worst of times, and when he didn’t he had Wukong (except for when he really, really didn’t and even then he had someone to turn to, whether it be Nezha who he had known for like five minutes or Macaque who tried killing him A Lot). But! Like good friends, Mei and Red comfort him.

A third bit in the LMK with Pigsy, Tang, Sandy, and Bai He. Pigsy, Tang, + Sandy are all looking for MK & Mei because they’ve been gone way longer than normal and aren’t answering their phones (which also aren’t even showing their locations beyond the tunnel they were at before going to Ninjago). Tang + Sandy definitely are on Pigsy about not asking Wukong abt it but he’s still justifiably pissed at SWK because he almost got all of them killed a lot on their mini-Journey for the True Fire. While searching they run into a mildly stricken Bai He. (and it stops, it’s a cliffhanger. She’s looking for Macaque and he’s been missing for the same amount of time as the Trio).

So after the vignettes, we get into the meat of the plot with the Tournament beginning! Traffic Light Trio goes down into the main area to listen to the rules with those who just arrived off the ferry to the Island. They marvel at everyone there because that means that they’re probably all people like MK and Mei who have powers but aren’t quite powerful beings like Red and them.

Once they’re sent to their rooms (that they’ve already been staying in), the first competition starts. For drama purposes, Red goes against Kai, Mei vs Jay, and MK vs Lloyd (since their powers are similar). Obv Kai and Jay are furious that they might not be THE Master of Fire/Lightning but just A Master of Fire/Lightning. Red doesn’t really give Kai the time of day and just snatches his Jade Blade after trading some blows, maybe snarks at him too. Mei plays it off with that childlike energy she has sometimes? Very “i like your funny words magic man.”

When it comes down to Lloyd vs MK, it’s very lighthearted but competitive in a fun way (in his opinion) on MK’s end while Lloyd is taking it pretty seriously since Zane is on the line. At first it’s just normal back and forth then MK uses one of his decidedly Golden powers which has Lloyd having an “oh shit!” moment since there was no one else with Golden power after he and Wu lost it last season. They don’t get to chat about it since the competition goes on.

From there it’s the spying portion w the ninja which will instead be split into two subplots. First is the ninja talking abt the competitors and their worries abt Traffic Light Trio. Second is Traffic Light Trio talking abt the competition and what happens if they lose then what the brackets are like. Their 1v1 fights are meant to be Red vs Tox, Mei vs Pale, and MK vs Shade.

Next day has that cafeteria scene with everyone in one place. MK slept in so he’s not there and Mei is off looking for him, so to start out it’s just Red. He gets confronted by Kai about having ‘his power’ which Red thinks is ridiculous. He insults Kai’s arguably worse (in his opinion) fire and how it has nothing on True Fire of Samadhi (blah blah the Ultimate Wildfire). (He mentions the True Fire not specifically because he has it but he still created it when he was born so naturally his powers are still somewhat comparable while Kai’s are not)

While they’re butting heads, it skips over to MK finally leaving his room and encountering Shade who starts antagonizing him for supposedly no reason. He says something that hits hard (not sure what yet? maybe a jab at him about his powers not being his own? just something that Shade, since he’s from Ninjago, should not know). When he dips, Mei comes and gets him then they go back to the cafeteria.

Traffic Light Trio eats together! It’s very nice, fluffy energy with no actual effect on the plot.

We skip the 1v1s up to Skylor’s and have Traffic Light Trio react to Chen’s “because of the NiNjA” penalty. Red is upset, as expected, he doesn’t want to sleep with the peasants. MK and Mei are considerably less upset because it’s like a big sleepover where they get to know everyone! As they go and everyone gets ready for bed, MK tries to reach out and be friendly (which doesn’t really work) except for when he tries chatting with Lloyd. The other 2 ninja did brush him off, but Lloyd talks to him and it’s nice start of friendship talks. They accidentally get a little deep abt responsibility and MK says something vaguely profound before it’s lights out.

Next is when they wake up for Thunderblade(?). Mei and Red are good enough on rollerblades but MK is killing it, as attributed to asking Nezha for some tips and tricks a while back. When Chen announces the game’s rules and how they can help a team, MK doesn’t waste any time picking up the green team helmet (to Red’s chagrin again, he’s so mad that MK’s so impulsive). Kai’s suspicious of them, asks why they’re helping, and MK very genuinely says something along the lines of “well you’re my friends” and Red very testily adds “because he’s stupid.”

Thunderblade is still a losing fight even with Traffic Light Trio so the ninja still end up allying with the other characters. Shade is more of a jerk than in canon and seems to be targeting MK and not Lloyd?

Afterward, the Ninja and Traffic Light Trio have an actual conversation while heading to the sleeping room. Introductions, talks about their powers, just normal-ish stuff. Lloyd brings up what Chen does to losers and MK has this moment where he reflects on both times he lost his powers (to Macaque and to LBD respectively) and grimaces. Mei supports him though and so does Red and they reassure them that they won’t be losing anytime soon.

Now there’s another B Plot moment with Free Noodles and Sandy + Bai He in the LMK world where they’re still trying to figure out what’s happened. They’re talking abt everything they’ve tried, where they’ve looked, and they’ve ‘got nothing.’ Tang mentions they really should just ask SWK for help which Pigsy + Bai He do not want to do. Sandy immediately goes “oopsie see abt that” and SWK shows up.

He asks after MK, when they say they can’t find him or the other three missing people he just shrugs it off, Pigsy’s furious for a good reason (he’s your successor, you need to worry about him too), and SWK reasons that if MK really were in trouble, he’d just astral project or SWK wouldn’t be able to see him with the Golden Eyes of Truth. When Bai He or Pigsy challenge him to do so, however, he finds that MK is just gone. Nowhere to be seen. So SWK starts worrying too! Hooray!

Next day in Ninjago, it’s Red vs Tox. No real things to add here except that Red wins. Maybe he goofs off (in a very serious, Red Son way) and doesn’t really Fight Fight like MK and Mei know he can (like in the first movie where he was ready to incinerate MK

Banquet where Ninja suspect Shade, MK says he’s kinda familiar which Red scoffs at since Shade’s obviously from Ninjago not LMK, and Neuro adds this tidbit that he’s tried looking into Shade’s mind but even that is shrouded in mystery and darkness as if he is less the Master of Shadows but really shadows himself

Traffic Light Trio doesn’t buy into Chen’s lie abt the staff and it really just bolsters them to Not Lose (esp Mei because if someone gets the True Fire then they might actually die)

To that end, Mei ends up talking to Garmadon about her powers (or Garmadon goes to ask what’s on her mind) and the damage they might do if given to someone else. When he tries to console her w the fact that, even in a worst case scenario, all the Elemental Masters here are used to holding immense power. She disputes that right away but when he asks why she thinks it too dangerous, she struggles to answer. Red shows up though and explains the True Fire’s properties, prolly leads into a jump to the next scene

Talking to the masters abt the spy in Kai’s room, Neuro still can’t check Shade’s mind. When he runs off, MK chases him. They have a bit of a showdown where suddenly Shade isn’t acting the same way he was in the room w everyone else. They fight, Shade needles him with his insecurities and hits him in his weak points that really only his friends should know. Eventually MK gets fed up with him and tries to hit him w the Staff. Shade disappears into his own shadow and the room gets dark in a way that’s very familiar to MK. Shade tells him that he’s “really dense” but he should’ve expected that since “like master like student.”

Finally MK catches on that Shade is Macaque, calls him out, and he transforms back into his normal self to say “the one and only” again because that’s one of my favorite lines

That’s pretty much all I’ve thought out, maybe I’ll continue in a different post for the other half of Tournament of Elements

#lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk macaque #lmk tang #macaque #mr tang #six eared macaque #lmk sun wukong #sun wukong #lmk mk #lmk xiaotian #lmk xiaojiao #lmk mei #lmk red son #red son #lmk red boy #hong hai'er #lmk hong hai'er #lmk pigsy #traffic light trio #chimera shipping #lmk bai he #ninjago #kai #lloyd garmadon #jay walker #crossover #lmk x ninjago #Monkie kid x ninjago #tournament of elements

[richardsphere]

How the writing accidentally “protag’d” Jaune, and how to prevent a repeat in V10

Look i’ll defend Jaune every day of my life, he’s a necessary grounding force in the story, a well written tragic figure and often an important voice of reason (as a result of being one of the more grounded figures in the show) and just generally a likeable guy. He’s one of my top 5 characters in the show even. But god you can see that even the showrunners are angry at how much he’s the only character they still really “know”how to write. and the worst part is that all of the choices are individually defensible and often even the right choice for the narrative.   This readmore focusses on speculations regarding the doylist reasons behind jaune’s prominence in certain scenes, and how to make adjust their course-correction strategy to be more effective.

Like i made a post before about how S1-3 were light on characterising Team RWBY because there’s gonna be a roadtrip arc and we’ll give them their own arcs to flesh them out then. And Jaune was verry much crucial in the early game (because he’s simultaneously ruby’s foil, an audience exposition receptical and Pyrrha is going to die and as the regular “normal guy” in the show no one else is better at representing the idea of “a regular life of happiness VS a great destiny that ends in tragedy” for our Achilles paralel). Then S4 splits the party up to give us the chance to characterise Blake, Yang and Weiss with their own arcs, so you’d expect those 2 seasons to give them some depth? But now that these characters are spread across 4 seperate continents we need to set up so many new side-characters for them to interact with that we dont have the time for introspection, we need to flesh out the politics of Menagerie, introduce Fake!Spring maiden, introduce Willow and Klein and Whitley and Jaques first(?) on screen appearance, and introduce Salems other lieutenants and set up the mystery of Oscarpin.... and Oopsie thats S4 done, we didnt have the time to flesh out any of WBY. And because its hard to make Ruby mourn something as abstract as a physical location, we’ll substitute it by making her foil mourn an actual person. So S4-5 doesnt flesh out RWBY, (and strangely does little for Team Sloth, who should probably have been shown mourning Pyrrha as well) but does flesh out Jaune a bit more. (which tbh, is justifiable, he’s the OG exposition-hearer and we’re about to enter the part of the plot where none of our protagonists know whats going on. Being “the guy who doesnt know stuff” isnt a schtick they can maintain for the guy anymore so we need to give him a new thing to do and “grief” is a good-enough thing for now). But at least WBY can have their own arcs to flesh themselves out right? only this is where the writers realise, we cant resolve or explore Yangs issues with Raven too deeply, because the Raven issues are inseperable from the “fate of Summer” mystery so they leave that on a half-resolution.

Weiss runs away from home, but that doesnt deepen her because “doesnt want to be with Jaques” was one of her first known traits. but at least we know she’s got a brother (who is in like one scene) a butler and moms alcoholism. Which leaves us in Menagerie, where we get some nice exploration of Blakes loving parents, but this arc doesnt really deepen out what makes her tick because Adam isnt in this arc and it turns out that: No Blake does not actually have some deep-seated reason to join the fang, she was just sort of born into it. which sort of waters her motivations down from “freedomfighter trying to achieve justice in a cruel and unjust world” to “Inherited the family business”. (and while “family legacy” is a big thing in RWBY, what with Ruby, Weiss and Jaune all being motivated by that specific thing, there are no other characters in the Menagerie arc that can contrast/foil/emphasise this part of her character so this new reveal about Blakes core motivations is a bit mellow). So after S5, the showrunners look over their charactersheets and realise “dammit, Jaune is currently the most well-defined character?” and they do the first thing they can think of: They eject Jaune from the plot ASAP. They cut the train in two so we can finally have some time with just RWBY and give them a little arc and some characterisation... And someone in the writers room piped up and said “wait, isnt the traincrash the only part we can really justify making Ozpin drop the lamp” and suddenly the “reaching Ansel safely”arc becomes the “Salem’s basic motivations and Ozpin cant be trusted” arc. so instead of “characterising RWBY” we get Ozposition and Salem backstory. But at least we get to see the heroes react to the revelation that Ozpin is full of it right? Well sort of, because while we do get a Qrow Lashing Out scene, Maria pipes in and reminds them “we’re allready holding the lamp, dont get emotional right now we cant afford a second grimm-magnet in this undefensible wilderness position”. (which yeah, fair point i guess she’s making a valid point but also, bad for the writing) And while you’d expect “our mentor cant be trusted” to be the perfect inciting incident for some character introspection, our next destination is the Brunswick farm, where the apathy lives. Now i love the apathy as a concept, and its a well written mini-arc. But whichever writer thought it was a good idea to follow the “our heroes are at the perfect moment for some real character-drama” up with a monster with the power to make characters behave in manners they normally would not behave, needs to surrender their christmass bonus. Like i get that you could argue they’re trying to go for “monster as analogy” but if you want to deepen out the characters here you really want the characters to respond to the issue in different, specific ways that flesh them out as individuals. but instead they are all forced into the same emotional state, which serves only to homogonise RWBY and make them less distinctive and identifiable. So the apathy cuts out our first real opportunity for some RWBY together-in-crisis exploration, but we fix the bike and make our way to Jaune’s Sisters Place for a second “ozpins full of shit” reveal, except this time to characters who arent going to be forced into non-response by Maria/Magic Apathy, and OOPS we just gave JNR the characterbeat that RWBY should’ve had. This is also when someone in the writers room (justifiably) pipes up: “wait, this is our last stop before we leave Mistral isnt it, and we’re not coming back to Mistral ever again afterwards right?”, and someone else answers yes, and the first guy responds “why did our 3 seasons in Pyrrha’s home-place never once make us meet her grieving family again?” and the second guy palms their face and said “allright you’ve got a point” and we get the Pyrrha Statue Scene. Which moves Jaune from “actively seeking death” to “Willing to postpone his his Suicinder until there’s no one left to mourn him”  We kill Adam while the plot prevents Weiss from ever seeing the weight of her family’s sins (yet again) as S6 comes to an end, and despite the writers taking active precautions to prevent it from happening, they’ve once again managed to flesh out Jaune without truly exploring the shows namesake team... And we get to S7, and they do the sensible thing and once again write Jaune out of the story by making him a traffic-cop who will not be involved in any plots or sub-plots for a while. But, We also brought back Penny, This is Watts’ only arc as a villain so we need to make him ominous and let him have his screentime, and we want to be interesting and make this arc Villain VS Villain with Ironwood VS Salem so the heroes wont actually get to interact with any of the antagonists for this plotline, allthewhile introducing Clover and the Aceops, setting up the Spear of Damocles and the Huntresses. So the heroes just spend a lot of time doing small fetch-quests that dont connect to anything too significant as the show tries to set the stage for S8. Also, this is our fourth? concecutive story about learning not to follow authorities blindly (Lionheart, Ozpin, Cordovin, Ironwood) so the show really struggles to sell the heroes trust in Ironwood when he introduces “operation world-wide grim-insurgence”. So a lot of this story-arc sort of falls flat as we spend most of S7 figuring out that, yeah the guy wanting to create a worldwide grimm-insurgence is probably not entirely morally right to do so. So S7 doesnt end up fleshing out anyone but perhaps Ren’s taste in bootleather, as it’s too busy setting up and fleshing out the villains to spend time on our heroes. Weiss does get to interact with her family though to flesh her out more. But the “confronting my asshole dad” thing is short and strangely low-stakes. (We havent seen verry much of Weiss’ homelife even during the V4 bit she was at home, and weiss has been largely sheltered from his “corporate crimes”, never getting to be in any scene that hints or adresses those victimised by the SDC. As a result his arrest at her hands lacks an emotional punch) S7 ends with Qrow broken, clovers death and Ironwood’s villain reveal as well as Penny as the Winter Maiden. S7 was so weak on characterisation for the main-cast, and semi-removed lessons learned in the last 3 seasons to a point where Jaune being largely absent ends up largely shielding him from the “did no one learn their lesson” feeling that permeates S7. And then we get to S8. S8 is still largely Villain VS villain, with our heroes forced to fight logistics of food-supplies and evactuations instead of dealing with any antagonistic force until Ironwood threatens the MantleBomb. This is also our last chance to characterise Penny. We get a little bit of “weiss loves her family” and Yang pining for Blake in the snowfields. But all the plotbeats go to Oscar, Emerald, Penny and the villains again until the team decides to use the spear, S8 is also largely a nothingburger for RWBYJNR is what im saying. Until the climax that is, where we dont get much in the form of characterisation beyond “the ones on the bridge grieve the fallen” but then Penny makes the sacrifice play, And Jaune screams. Now i understand why it couldnt be RWBY members to do the stab, (WBY have no real relation to penny and are already established as the sort-of-pragmatic castmembers who, while not happy wouldnt really “struggle” too much and Ruby needs to maintain her “innocence” for marketability purposes) so obviously Jaune was the only real option because as Ruby’s foil and with Penny being a maiden “ladykiller” has a sort-of second-hand connection to her. but goddamn could the show let the main four do SOMETHING important already without cutting away from their responding emotions for once? Then we get S9,   the show realises again that it needs to get rid of jaune because they’ve overused him again, creates a Jaune-free window for the characters to interact in again but wastes it’s chance again as it focusses on setting up new characters and building the setting and mystery for this new story-arc. Again. So according to some basic patern recognition: when we enter V10, expect Jaune to disapear from the story for the first half-season as the writers will, once again try to give the rest of the cast the spotlight back, only for exposition and worldbuilding to steal said spotlight from the cast anyway. Then when the plot kicks off and its “all hands on deck” Jaune will return to the plot because All Hands includes his healing hands, and that means that Jaune gets to once again be absent for the boring logistics of the narrative, and present for the characterisation bits. so now that we have identified root of the shows current problem, how would I fix it? I’d suggest moving the “Jaune free” plot-zone back a bit. Instead of putting it at the start of the vacuo arc, move it back to the early mid-point. Hell make him extremely prominent during the “boring worldbuilding” phase of our Vacuo arc. Then his dissapearence from the plot the inciting incident for the mid-point of the arc. Put him in prison/coma/other state of not-in-the-show for a bit and make Jaune’s Absence one of the things the rest of the cast can react and emote to/about. For example: Tyrian shows up, Tries to stab someone, Jaune interposes himself and turns out oops thats a poison and jaune slips into a coma. (no jaunes aura did not heal him from Alyx’ poison, the paperpleasers did cause they’re literal magic) How does Ruby respond to possibly losing her First Friend, especially now that she’s already lost her second friend (sorry weiss, but you werent a “friend” until after penny, pre penny you were an aquantence at best) How does Yang respond to Ruby’s response, does she go back to Momsis mode? How does Weiss respond to the guy who saved her life at Haven? How do ReNora respond to losing the last thing that seperated Team Sloth from JNPR being gone, possibly forever if they dont get the antidote from [Medical lab] Does Oscar become the new leader of OREN? (pronounced Orange) just, dont only remove Jaune from the setup, remove him from the actual plot next season.

#rwby #rwby analasis #rwby critical #rwby critique #I do acknowledge that making a Jaune Coma the inciting incident for the mid-arc would implicitly make Jaune important #But also it'd just be the logical way to remove him from the plot WHEN it gets going #writing analysis #rwby analysis

[buck-yyyy]

idk if this qualifies as an ask but I had a thought earlier.

why did they start off Mike the way they did in s4? He's sitting there reading a letter from El the day before he goes to see her and it's one that explicitly states Will might be painting for a girl?

and why read that particular letter when she's sent dozens?

I mean unless he just got it then yeah it makes sense but at the start of the day where he's in his underwear and a tank top?

see, that's really confusing to me too, for a couple reasons

exactly what you said. what was the purpose?

el wrote that letter the day before spring break. mike received it... the day before spring break? excuse me? that makes ZERO sense? she talks about how she can't wait to see mike tomorrow and what's been going on in school (i haven't watched the scene for a bit but yk what this is gonna have to be good enough), and i believe that there may be a date on the letter if you zoom in close enough? i don't remember exactly, but i know for a fact that the letter can be accurately dated to the day before spring break- and if you look at the letter he's reading, it's the same one that's being read aloud.

honestly, my guess is just that it was necessary for the exposition. it sets up will's painting, that el is lying to mike, that they even write letters in the first place (implying a lack of phone calls between mike and el, setting up the fact that only mike and will would be using the phone, which imo is a byler lead up bc of dustin saying mike constantly complains about joyce being on the phone- which is a whole OTHER plot hole), joyce's new job (which is ONLY plot relevant to byler just saying), the time, the setting, argyle, jonathan's lack of a car- it sets up EVERYTHING that's necessary for the season to kick off into motion.

i think it was just required exposition to begin every single separate plot line, so plot holes be damned, it was gonna have to go in whether we like it or not :/

#stranger things #byler #stranger things theories #kinda? #eh #whatever #asks!!!

[shrinkthisviolet]

On the Hawk/Eli storyline: I think the CK writers were trying to show more of what happens when: Hawk had finally overcome his bullying and being the bully himself. He’s been redeemed (in the eyes of Miyagi-Fang) and he’s soaring higher than ever has before at the moment (with it even looking as if he and Moon are on their way to getting back to together) — so what happens when you take all of that away? Like having him get assaulted wasn’t part of his redemption storyline. That had already happened. This was more about bringing him back to where he started in S1. He’s assaulted, not because he’s done something horrible, but due to an angry peer who has his own reasons. And after this, it does make sense he would feel like it’s karma for how he acted while in CK, but also as a sign he was never meant to be great. Which is why the scenes we get between him and Demetri as well as the ones with him and Moon do work for me. It wasn’t about redeeming Hawk/Eli, it was about him falling from and rising back to the top as he discovered who he was. Don’t get me wrong, the execution suffered from not having enough time to properly flesh this out (similar to Sam’s S4 arc). Plus, Robby being the one to come up with and lead the assault (due to a misunderstanding/jumping to conclusions) was a messed up story choice too. CK just has too many characters to give them justice (Miguel suffered the most from that in S4), but the writers won’t admit it and instead keep adding more. If the episodes were around 60 minutes each, than yeah, maybe, that could work. But a lot of great scenes that would better show character growth, foreshadowing, and/or exposition gets left on the cutting room floor.

Thing is, Hawk finding worth in himself after something like that could’ve worked...if they treated it with proper sensitivity. If they made it clear that despite Hawk’s behavior, he didn’t deserve this, if Robby was taken to task for it. You know? It got downplayed on the show in a way that, regardless of intention, comes across as “oh well Hawk had it coming.” And that doesn’t sit well with me

#cobra kai #eli hawk moskowitz

[demenior]

Dem’s Big Post About The Spn Fics Part 1/2

aka The Wrap Up to celebrate To Exist Again and To Become a Man now being finished!

(This will be a long post. This is your only warning.)

Admittedly this is a bit of a weird thing to be doing, but I wanted to try it out for 3 reasons: 

I love talking about my own work and 

It functions really well as a self-reflective tool for me to improve on, and 

I can answer some big questions people might have because there was a LOT of worldbuilding in these stories. 

We’ll start off with reflective stuff, and move into the juicier world-building focused stuff later into the post. There will be major spoilers for both fics to come!

To begin with a funny anecdote, Why Did I Write These Stories?

I was beginning to write and work out the story that I wanted to write for Spn (what will now be To Destroy a Man. As I was writing the scene, I realized I had a LOT of ideas and while I was trying to avoid as much exposition as I could, it became quickly apparent that I was needing to create my own au (this scene eventually became chapter 34 of To Become a Man). A short prequel seemed like a good idea, to quickly hash out the ‘prior’ events that I needed to go through so all the readers could be on the same page. While plotting out prequel points, I realized Sam and Dean were going to have drastically different experiences during the same time period, and I was trying to figure out who’s pov would be better for which scenes, and how to keep momentum when they’re going through such radically different types of changes. Ultimately I decided to split their povs, which I also thought would be a fun project! And I naively assumed each pov would take about 2 chapters each, rounding out to maybe 15k total.

I had my ending points: Dean n Cas soul-merged and (basically) married, Cas on the lam from heaven and a complete anomaly, and Sam juiced up full of powers and a weird mix of archangel and antichrist but still 100% human and ready to fight God. 

Now I needed to add weight to these changes, so I wrote 200k of build-up.

Am I proud of these fics?

OF COURSE I AM!!! These are the longest fics I’ve ever written AND finished AND in the fastest freakin turnaround ever (both were finished writing, barring edits, in like 6 months holy shit)

I didn’t write a single scene that I “didn’t” want to write. If I had trouble writing it, as in it was fighting me, I scrapped it. Most obviously was the scene in Dean’s pov where he and Sam were intended to meet some other hunters and Dean declines working with them because he’s nervous about being outed as queer. It was meant to be a good scene! I wanted to introduce some new characters! But it just wasn’t working so I said ‘thank you, next!’. 

But it means this story was an absolute joy to write. Because for a while all I was doing was ‘if I wanted to write one scene into supernatural, what would I write?’ and then just DID that!! It’s why there’s a lot of ‘Salmondean do dumb shit or have really dumb heartfelt conversations’ scenes.

Would I change anything?

If I’d been less eager to start sharing, I might have planned out the story beats a little tighter so there were less ‘soft’ chapters and a draw/pull for people to come back and keep reading. I felt Dean’s story specifically lagged at points and could have used some tighter editing (there was a noticeable lull in directed movement between Dean n Cas getting together, until Sam corrupts Amy).

I also probably would have held Sam’s story until I’d finished Dean’s so I could make the two line up better! Probably could have inserted more scenes into Sam’s fic that way, and made sure things were a little more consistent. In an ideal world one concept I had was to release 1 chapter from each pov every week that would correspond to the same time frame so we’d be getting real-time SalmonDean pov narrative. Unfortunately that didn’t work!

The biggest takeaway overall is for me to focus more on what moves the plot, and to make my scenes do more than 1 thing so I can cut down on wordcount and increase my efficiency. 

Of course every writer will find things they want to fix in anything they’ve ever written, so these are minor “mistakes” at best. I’m so dang proud of these fics. 

Onto more interesting things!

How Did I Put These Fics Together (because it’s different than anything I’ve ever done before)

Normally when I write a story, I plan out the beats I need to hit, see where I need to insert any kind of foreshadowing/buildup, and then write from A to B to C and so on and so forth. Hence, this is why I can normally post things as I complete chapters, because it’s all a linear progression. 

For these two stories, rather than linear plot/a normal story structure, I just sat and free-wrote any and every scene that came to mind and then pieced them into a kinda-linear form like putting a quilt together. You’ll note that this is why there’s not a lot of internal callback or a feeling of sense of time flowing within the fic (save for points where I went back and specifically edited it in). How long does the story take place over? Hard to say! Your author has the barest grasp on linear time even on a good day (how many times did I say ‘see you on [wrong day]’ at the end of chapters lmaaoooo)

This also meant EXTENSIVE editing on the back end once I decided in what order I wanted my ‘quilt pieces’ to be. Hard to say if this is a bonus or a negative!

But I did want to try and capture the vibe of the lives they lead, as a bit of a ‘slice of life’-style story, when the slice of life is the profound weirdness of the Winchester roaming life, and how things are status quo- until everyone almost dies oh shit!! And then they have to keep living because no therapy we die/undie like Winchesters. Do I think I captured this effectively? Hmm. Good question. 

Dem where the FUCK did the inspiration for a lot of the magic and creature weirdness even come from?

Honestly? Music, primarily. And completely mishearing lyrics!

Nightwish ‘Ever Dream’: the line is ‘my song can but borrow you grace’ and because my brain is scrambled eggs on a good day, I heard ‘grace’ ‘song’ and ‘borrow’ in that order and have had, for YEARS, the mental image of Cas borrowing Dean’s soul to power himself up for battle.

From there I’ve always been enamored with the ‘wavelength of celestial intent’ descriptor that Cas drops in s6 for “what he is”. 

I also really like ocean metaphors mostly because I’ve been obsessed with the ocean and things in it since I was like… 5??? So really this was me just rolling with what I know lmao. I love using (somewhat) accurate scientific metaphors for very intangible things!

I was also finishing my degree in biology/ecology while writing these fics and I think it shows

Stars ‘The Night Starts Here’ gives us the series title and the fic titles. Except for ‘To Exist Again’. TEA was almost titled ‘The Upwards Fall’ because I wanted all 3 of the Main Stories to have titles from this song, but I couldn’t make anything else work in tandem with the series name ‘The Love It Takes’ while also working for Sam’s personal story. So Sam, as always, is the rebel <3

Stars ‘Up In Our Bedroom, After The War’ is basically the vibes of the whole story. TFW has been, literally, to hell and back!!! There’s a bit of melancholy and sadness, a lingering dark, but the chance of a bright new tomorrow and a soft start.

Let’s Talk About Themes in The Story! What were you looking to accomplish? 

My earliest notes for TFW are, as follows:

Dean’s journey of self-discovery (who am I when I’m not trying to be Dad?)

Dean wants to settle down! He wants a big family! He wants to be domestic!

Basically: Dean doesn’t want to have a short life of hunting. He wants to live!

Dean’s journey of realizing he’s bi, and him accepting that

Dean’s relationship to Sam is both older brother/parent 

And continuing Dean balancing these roles while also letting Sam be an adult 

Dean’s Big Issues/Fears about never being good enough for people to want to stay with him (these are effectively highlighted in that Cas thinks he’s not useful enough to be wanted)

Sub Plot:

Castiel’s autonomy

Cas’ fall from grace, to trying to restore Heaven, to wrecking it further

He’s majorly depressed by the end of s7 (before purgatory)

Wants to stay in Purgatory but doesn’t tell Dean

Remains depressed after leaving, but resolved to keep living on because he’s clearly meant for something

After the seraphim reveal: does he have free will?! How does he grapple with this? How does he live in a way he can be proud of?

And lastly

Sam gets his powers back CAUSE THATS HOT

where tf did they go????

he got them from Lucifer?????

sleeper agent??????

Sam is The Chosen One

Accepts that he is More Than Human and to celebrate all parts of him

Lucifer and Sam friends?? Work together????

Sam needs autonomy in his choices/his life

If you compare these to the overall arc of TFW within the two stories, I think I got a lot of them! But you’ll also note a lot of these things aren’t concrete goals that are easily measurable (ex: Dean wants to learn to bake pie. In chapter 1 he starts a fire in the kitchen. By the end of the story he finally makes A Good Pie.) part of the lack of concrete milestones was why I felt it was important to tell Dean (and Cas’) story by going back to the point they meet, in s4! Dean’s gradual change towards his feelings for Cas, his relationship to Sam (heavily influenced by the s7 events of this fic) and then his own relationship with himself were such slow burns that I felt it would be a disservice to try and cram a change like that into a timeline like “1 year”.

I felt like these subtle changes and adjustments actually felt a lot truer to life-- people often change in very small, gradual ways over time, even without realizing it and often times not consistently! If only we could all gain skills like the sims, where we can easily level up and remain at that high level of performance! 

So the Guy Who Ate Satan, A Celestial Nuke that Developed Sentience, and Dean walk into a bar…

Sam’s story in Spn The Show has always been a ‘chosen one’ kind of narrative. Sam is living with one foot in the realm of the monsters, and I wanted to bring that back full force! It really makes sense for him that he should only continue to grow in power, might, and magic!! As the story progresses.

Cas also got a power up! I do desperately love in the show that he was kind of a grunt/nothing angel, and so even when he defected to TFW he was a huge help for them, but in the scale of things he was an annoying fly to most other angels. It really worked for the underdog story of s4/5. In this I wanted to give him a power up, and originally it was actually going to be close contact with Sam that eventually changed Cas into something unknown (you can still see traces of this in ch34 of TBAM, where Death remarks ‘Castiel could be [Sam’s] first creation’. But for a combo of reasons: how Sam’s magic needed to have intent, the entire concept of free will and consent, and how much I wanted Dean and Cas to have their effect on each other, I decided to go with the route that Cas has actually always been something angel-adjacent rather than becoming something new. TFW/Supernatural has always been about free will and making your own story, so I amplified that with Cas.

Dean has always been A Normal Guy, which is part of the appeal of him and Sam (2 normal dudes!) taking on the Very Not Normal. As explained above, Sam’s story is ‘normal guy finds out he’s the chosen one’ and so, in a story about very large concepts and huge monsters and acts of magic, I felt it was very important to keep Dean as normal as possible. To the point it became a running gag to me, personally, in that ‘no matter what cool shit happens around him, Dean has to stay as Just A Guy’. And it’s a very humanizing role that allows the story to have the scale it does!

What were the most important themes in your story?

Sam’s Autonomy

I wasn’t even going to include the plot about Lucifer’s death in this story— that was going to come up in a later story, actually! And rather than Sam having ate Lucifer, the original idea was that they’d become a SamandLucifer entity (this harkens back to a concept I wanted to write when Swan Song first aired). 

That storyline would have involved a lot of mental ‘Sam and Lucifer discuss what it means to live, which one of them is more worthy of life and if they do deserve to destroy the world for the pain they’ve been forced to go through, just to create the dichotomy of good and evil for everyone else’ discussions. There would be a lot of talk about how Sam hates and fears Lucifer for the pain Lucifer put on Sam, how Lucifer hates Sam because he and Sam are the same but Sam’s brother loves him anyways, etc. 

Ultimately that was scrapped because Sam’s entire story in the show is always about how the world and everyone around him manipulates him and that he never actually gets to make choices about his own life or body that aren’t influenced or part of someone elses’ design. And that always bothered me that Sam was never allowed to be himself without having to be ashamed of it, and I wanted to make sure that Sam’s triumph of being proud of himself/proudly choosing to exist (again) was evident in his story

In the end I needed Sam to have this visceral win over his tormentor. As the story shows, in this case Lucifer was abused and put into a position where he was incapable of empathy and could only express himself in violence. Sam even understands this! But it doesn’t change the fact that Lucifer tortured Sam in unimaginable ways for thousands of years. 

With that in mind I didn’t like the idea of Lucifer and Sam having “co-ownership” of their new identity, so I made the choice that Sam had to be the survivor. This tied in well with Sam’s new crusade to restore free will to the universe, because he’s breaking the narrative of his own story!

While Castiel wasn’t a pov character, his own autonomy and free will was equally as important. You’ll note that many, many paragraphs and conversations revolved around that theme and that in the end Cas followed himself (and love!) which ensured his freedom of self <3

The Brothers are WEIRD PEOPLE!!!! And Codependent to a Worrying Degree, but It’s Also How They Survive

It’s very hard to show “unusual” relationships when you’re writing from the pov of the two people who don’t think there’s anything weird about their relationship. Sure, they say ‘yeah it’s probably weird that we still share a bed’ but that’s kinda more in line with ‘I had a nightmare and I want to be close to the person who makes me feel safe’. Hashtag normalize co-sleeping when you need it!!!

From there I did try to point out how the boys have a weird perception of lifestyle in the little things they did. 

From thrifting everything from clothes to appliances to books (thrifting is a valid lifestyle! It’s incredibly handy when you’re on a budget.) 

To never actually having condiments or knowing how to use a dishwasher cause they’ve lived in a car, a motel room, or squatted in old houses their whole life.

I tried to have them wear each others’ clothes or casually swap things as much as possible. They live out of each others’ pockets!

Also the brothers are just weird people!! It’s hard to show from their pov, cause they don’t know how far off from normal they are, but like…

Everything about Sam and Amelia was NOT right like holy shit those two were wilding in their grief. They are very lucky things worked out for them and that they got to be hashtag Weird Girls together

Dean explicitly, in the story, gets horny after killing stuff!! Violence has done a number on his psyche and he’s gotten some wires crossed that maybe shouldn’t have been, or maybe could be worked out in a safe space but… uh… how likely do we think Dean is gonna go find a safe space to deal with any of his shit???

LOVE!!! Love is truly what this whole story is all about

If you’ve read the stories, you know how much emphasis I put on love. Love is the strongest force in the Spn Universe! It’s what averted the apocalypse and saved the world (Swan Song), it’s what created free will (Cas’ entire arc!) I love love!!!!

I went out of my way to not put any definitions on platonic love vs romantic love because I think love is love is love and how you express that is the difference. Neither is more powerful than the other because LOVE is powerful!! Sam and Cas are the most important people in Dean’s life and he loves them equally! He shows this by giving Cas kisses and stealing Sam’s socks.

It’s a personal pet peeve of mine when I have to hear explanations like ‘I love you, like a brother’ or ‘I love you, but like, as a friend because I’m a lesbian and you’re a man’ etc etc in media. If you have to continuously define how your characters love each other, then I don’t think you’re doing a good job of portraying their relationship. So you’ll see that I never put those parameters in any conversation. Dean DOES muse that he loves Cas differently than he loves Sam or Bobby, specifically because there is a romantic and sexual tone that his feelings for Cas takes, but not because he loves Cas more or less than he loves Sam or Bobby.

Which means, if you haven’t realized it yet, the Series + Fic Titles are meant to be a complete sentence because the power of love IS the thesis of this series:

The Love It Takes To Exist Again (Sam’s journey!)

The Love It Takes To Become a Man (Dean’s journey!)

The Love It Takes To Destroy a Man (TBA)

And now for fun stuff. Behind the scenes!!

What’s Something People Probably Don’t Know?

The demonic fungal/hydrothermal vent growth on Sam’s arm was thrown in literally as I was posting the chapter because I had just finished a 48 hour cram session of writing a report on tube worms for an ecology class (I was chanting my tube worm song as I wrote it) and it ended up being a HUGE hit with both readers and myself. But it was so last minute I had trouble fitting it in more throughout the rest of Sam’s story!

Cas’ orders? That may or may not have bound him to Dean and removed his free will? Were written into Sam’s story and I went ‘oh SHIT that’s compelling’ and then left them there as a ‘guess I’ll figure that out when I get to Dean’s story lol’

Originally Dean and Cas were supposed to get together after having their souls bonded, and have been in a UST limbo the entire time before that. Mostly because I think the entire concept of ‘we just got married of the soul I guess we should try dating?’ is very funny. CLEARLY the two of them were way more eager to fall in love than I anticipated (thank you Cas for your honesty) but you can still see shades of this original idea here and there (especially in ch35 of TBAM)

I never intended Dean and Benny to connect so well!! Benny was going to reunite with Andrea, she was going to live, and they were going to go off into the world and leave the story. And, uh, here we are. I’m still debating if I need to adjust the relationship tag or not haha. Polyamory is fun, especially when I was planning for Sam to be the polyamorous brother...

Speaking of, I can’t believe I forgot about Sam and his sexuality! If I rewrote TEA I would have had Sam contemplate more on his lack of sexual appetite due to trauma, up until he meets Benny and he gets to rediscover how he wants to be a sexual person

Many of Sam and Dean’s absolutely stupid sibling conversations were lifted near-verbatim from conversations I’ve had with my siblings

And lastly...

Dem where’s Kevin????????????? Where is our sweet baby boy????????

He’s SAFE!! He’s in the Hunter pipeline somewhere cause Sam handed him off to Bobby’s people. He and his mom are safe and at some point they probably got rib sigils like SalmonDean did against angels, but for demons. I didn’t have room in this story for him!!! But my baby boy is SAFE and I want to get him back to university because it’s WHAT HE DESERVES!!!!

To that point: god there were/are SO many characters that I just didn’t include in the story so far because I didn’t feel comfortable including them without stalling the story for them. To that point: pretty much everyone who is alive/dead in s8 is that way in this story, except Bobby who gets to live.

[Check Out Part 2 for reader questions!]

#the love it takes series #to exist again fic #to become a man fic #dem speaks

[sun-spice]

@themagnuswriters is apparently doing a fic appreciation thing? Have I got that right? I've been busy as fuck lately so I haven't had the energy to properly appreciate the stuff I've been reading, but I do happen to have an old rec list in my drafts that I'd forgotten about. If I have the time I might do another one with some more recent stuff and maybe an additional nsfw reclist :)

List under the cut, word counts and completion statuses are probably out of date.

the sword of damocles by penhaligon | post-160 apocalypse averted, hurt/comfort | 89k, ongoing, T | minor JonMartin

Summary: Martin interrupts Jonah's ritual. That doesn't mean their problems are solved.

Jon, Martin and Basira set off to deal with Jonah once and for all after the ritual is interrupted. To make matters worse for them, however, the Fears now know of said ritual and are each determined to pull it off themselves. Stunning prose in this one, I love how penhaligon builds up small moments of suspense.

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where there's a will, we will make a way by bubonickitten | S4 time travel fix-it | 107k, ongoing, T | minor JonMartin

Summary: Jon goes back to before the world ended and tries to forge a different path.

Late series time travel fix-it with communication between the characters. Some development on minor characters as well, which I love, and lots of relatable hard conversations <3

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An Cailleach agus an Fear Sidhe by Drowsy_Salamander | urban fantasy, fae au, witchcraft | 30k, ongoing, T | JonMartin, Martin & Sasha & Tim

Martin moves to join a witch coven consisting of Tim and Sasha. The three of them have to pick up the slack protecting their town, previously lacking witch presence, from the fair folk. Meanwhile there are people in the town who know more than they're letting on.

Loving the dynamic between Martin, Sasha and Tim so far. The exposition and worldbuilding is well delivered and the beginnings of a mystery start to drag you in. What do Jon, Daisy and Basira have to do with everything? What is Jane Prentiss hoping to achieve?

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A Home For What Loves You by TheWrongShop | canon divergence, hurt/comfort, slow burn romance | 66k, ongoing, T | JonMartin

Summary: Jon and Martin end up investigating Carlos Vittery's basement and finding the entity formerly known as Jane Prentiss together.

Jon and Martin are trapped together in Martin's apartment band later have to live together in the archives. Communication? Among archive staff? More likely than you think.

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What Once Was Mine by dieanywhereelse | reverse time travel fix-it, dramatic comedy, safehouse fic | 29k, ongoing, T | S1 Polychives, JonMartin, found family

Summary: The Scottish Safe house gets a few visitors from the past. Jon and Martin get a chance to set things right.

In which future Jon and Martin are actually somewhat well adjusted after averting the apocalypse and dealing with Jonah. They get an opportunity to help past versions of themselves and their dead friends to get where they are with (hopefully) less pain. Love this au a whole bunch, it's one of my all-time faves! Really well thought-out with some great character dynamics and some adjusted monster!Jon.

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Moth Song by Siarven | time travel fix-it, dimension hopping, hurt/comfort, found family | 76k, ongoing, M | minor JonMartin

Jon accidentally travels into the S1 of an alternate universe and tries to set things right. He's a mess, and has a breakdown, but he talks with his friends and together they start to work it out.

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I'd Be Under the Sea but You Hold Me Above by Write_as_Rain | mer au, hurt/comfort, fast burn romance | 14k, completed, T | JonMartin

Summary: As a fisherman working under Captain Lukas, Martin has learned to keep his head down and fade into the mist. He does his work, walks further down the path Peter has laid before him, and if members of the crew occasionally disappear, Martin has learned not to ask about them. Has learned to stop caring at all.

At least until the crew pull up something strange and wonderful and impossible, tangled in one of the fishing nets. Something that Peter means ill.

No, Martin doesn't... care. But maybe he can save it. Maybe they can save each other.

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A Few Small Repairs by Mad_Maudlin, shipwreckblue | canon divergence | 138k, completed, M | minor JonMartin

Gertrude shot first, killing Elias and all of the staff of the Magnus Institute who where in the building that day. Jon somehow survives and is taken in by Gertrude, Gerry and Mary at Pinhole Books.

-

Meanwhile, Martin, Sasha and Tim are some of the surviving staff trying to pick up the pieces after the strange 'fire'. But wasn't Gertrude supposed to be dead? What is up with this new Institute director?

the garden of forking paths by bibliocratic | post post-apocalypse, time travel, dimension hopping, angst with a happy ending | 50k, completed, T | JonMartin, minor found family

Summary: Whatever he had predicted might happen, Jon wasn't expecting to survive upon demolishing the Panopticon. He certainly wasn't expecting to be rescued.

Instead, he wakes up in an alternative universe where he's never been the Archivist, and Martin Blackwood doesn't exist.

Martin Blackwood wakes up somewhere else entirely.

Poignant and bittersweet but with a happy ending. Really well written!

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youth dipped in folly by evanescent_jasmine | pre-canon divergence(?), bittersweet | 27k, completed, M | GerryOliver

Summary: In 2012, Oliver meets Gerard Keay and thinks that maybe, just maybe, he can finally save somebody.

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He’s wrong.

A Reel for the Watcher by RedCytosine | period drama (early 1900s), fae au | 50k, ongoing, M | JonMartin, minor found family

Summary: Martin Blackwood, in need of employment and out of options, takes a clerical position in Scotland at Castle Magnus, working for the enigmatic Lord Elias Bouchard. He expects it to be glorified paper-shuffling, but what he finds instead is much more sinister. What secrets lurk in the castle library? Who plays the wild music that haunts his dreams? And why does a strange horse wander the lakeshore each morning at dawn?

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TFW you wake up from a long nap and have no idea where you are by forgetfulmachine | time travel fix-it, fluff, found family | 33k, ongoing, G

Summary: Jon gets sent back to mid season one in the middle of his coma. Tim, Sasha, and Martin help him through his emotions and stopping the Unknowing. There's a lot of fluff along the way.

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Thistle and Weeds by ajkal2 | time travel hurt/comfort, disability | 6k, ongoing, M

Excerpt: “Jon,” Martin says. “Are you alright?”

Jon’s head lifts, turns toward the sound. He’s shaking. His teeth are bared, a flash of white against his dark skin, but it’s not a smile. There’s something- His eyes, they don’t look right-

His mouth opens, jaw trembling, and he says “Martin?” The bright overhead lights gleam off the blood pouring down his face. His eyes are black, empty sockets.

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for a firmament by supaslim | two works | canon divergence, transformation horror, recovery | 31k, completed, T

Series summary: There is beauty in destruction. There is art in becoming.

In which Jon becomes the Archive, and the Archive becomes Jon.

Wonderful monster!Jon with some amazing body horror and mental illness recovery themes. Moved me to tears!

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A Break in the Clouds by Ash_Rabbit | time-travel, fluff and angst, pre-canon | 22k, ongoing, T | Jon & Original Elias

Excerpt: “I’m eight.” the kid sniffs as if eight was any different from four, maybe not an unspeakable horror then, just a regular horror. “And I heard that the Magnus Institute deals with-” his little nose scrunches, cute. “-spooky things.”

“Do you have a-” he cracks a grin, and then rethinks it as small hands tighten against their burden.”-spooky thing to deliver?” gods he hopes not, it’s bad enough when adults walk in and lay out all of their baggage, but for a child-

“There’s a spider in this book.” the kid says solemnly, raising his textbook sized parcel. “It ate Evan Pritchard.” a bloody fucking Leitner. Of course an eight year old would find a murder spider book. “This seemed like the best place to bring it.”

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Seen, Unseen, Unsung by bluejayblueskies | character undeath, canon divergence, memory loss, End!Tim | 50k, ongoing, M | JonMarTim, Tim & Danny & Sasha

Summary: Tim wakes up from the Unknowing with a blank slate where the Institute had been, Danny sitting at his bedside, and a man with too many eyes haunting his dreams.

#tma #the magnus archives #tma fics

[phynali]

Season 6 supernatural re-write

keeping the seasonal plot points the same but tweaking the specifics so it flows more cohesively and sets up the next few seasons better.

we start with bobby phoning dean. it’s been 7 months since sam fell into the cage, dean’s looked for/at every possible way to get him out. he’s mourning still, but the days are getting easier.

then the call. a demon, or a shifter, or something. dean meets up with him. bobby has a photo - it’s definitely, unmistakably sam.

(because wtf there’s no universe bobby wouldn’t tell dean that sam was back from the dead if he knew, so - )

they track sam down. silver, holy water, everything. sam just laughs and goes for a hug, effectuating his best I Have a Soul impression for dean’s sudden appearance. he’s been out of the cage for months, running with this other crew now. 

(not sam campbell because him coming back from the dead was dumb. another hunter group, maybe one that sprung up around or as a result of the apocalypse. remind us of the previous season’s plot and the fact that sam was hunted by other hunters. remind us how dissonant and disjointed it is that he’s working with them now). 

no, he doesn’t think it’s odd that he didn’t go and get dean. dean was happy, sam was happy to leave him to it.

dean and bobby are O.O 

it is Immediately obvious that Something is Wrong. any pretense otherwise is dispelled very quickly and sam gives up the game, shrugs. tells it like it is. he didn’t go get dean back because dean might hold him back, because dean cares so much about coddling him and sam’s fine, he’s great, awesome, actually. he’s strong and solid and doesn’t feel burdened. he’s light. he doesn’t sleep.

he doesn’t sleep?

okay, so something might be off, but he’s not looking a gift horse in the mouth. dean can be his partner again though, sam likes having him around. it’s nice, they work well together. it’s good.

(is it the blood, sam? what? no, no, haha, i tried that. didn’t even take. it doesn’t work for me anymore. how weird is that? you did what? yeah, i wasn’t craving it, but i thought it might help me get stronger. it didn’t do anything. weird, right?)

(sam doesn’t need sleep but dean hardly can sleep after hearing that)

bobby is researching like mad to figure out what’s wrong with sam and sam is like...yeah fine whatever i think i’m supposed to care about you so i guess this is fine.

sam and lisa do Not get along. sam’s smile is razor sharp and she feels uncomfortable to have him in her house. we get the distinct impression sam let dean get vamped to spite her, and possibly egged dean on to her house. it doesn’t take a truth spell for dean to call in the big guns after that.

cass finally answers the phone prayer. he hadn’t considered the amount of danger dean might be in around Soulless till now. cass soul-fists sam and tells hm he has no soul. oops. 

and he doesn’t remember anything about hell? about how he got out of the cage? nothing at all?

sam smiles placidly. nothing, cass. i have no clue how i got out. 

(he knows. cass knows he knows).

sam agrees to get his soul back because why not. then he finds out how unpleasant that will be. he blackmails cass into helping him stop it from happening. (angels can’t get that far into hell without an army or an ally, cass. what did it cost for crowley to let you into hell? you his bitch now, cass? is that it?). 

cass and Souless as feral energy and restrained violence with each other. (”i dragged you out of that cage and i will throw you back in.” and “you dragged me out wrong and if you didn’t fuck this up the first time this wouldn’t be an issue now would it?”)

dean figuring out death can get sam’s soul. sam like ‘oh shit’ and trying to stop that, not by attempting to kill bobby (because this is my re-write and i hated that). except cass double-crosses sam and gags Soulless so he can’t spill the beans on him before the soul gets shoved in his body and the wall goes up.

in this version, cass puts up the wall (not Death). it’s not even clear if it’s necessary because the audience Does Not Trust cass at this point in the season after all the lies and talks with Soulless. Death gives us important exposition about the scarring on Sam’s soul and how deep it goes, how his soul is in literal tatters. it can repair itself, but it’s going to take a long damn time. this is gonna be relevant for the next three seasons.

note: his soul being in tatters is unrelated to the psychological trauma that the wall is keeping at bay inside his mind.

sam gets his soul. the wall goes up. sam remembers nothing. 

cass like :))) this is fine :)))

cass’s lies are spiralling. season plot happens, meg, demons, etc. mr. not-sam-campbell betrays them, crowley is an asshole, raphael, etc.

(can you imagine if Mr. not-sam-campbell was actually bela talbot? she was one of crowley’s contracts and maybe he resurrected her because he knows she’s the best and so she can keep an eye on cage-freed sam because crowley might’ve given cass permission to go down the cage but he’s not stupid enough not to keep his eye on this situation. gaaaah i miss bela so much, and the parallel of sam/bela and dean/lisa and dean’s memories of ruby but bela is Not a demon and she is terrified of Soulless because he’s a sociopath through and through, anyway don’t mind me).

when it all comes apart, when sam’s memories are slipping through and he starts to remember conversations with cass from when he was soulless, puts pieces together - 

cass breaks his wall. floods him with it. the “i dragged you out of the cage and i can put you back in” we had set up with him and sam earlier in the season is now actually coming full-circle in a metanarrative sense, and paying off cass first saying that to dean in s4 because sam’s pain is dean’s hell. chef’s kiss.

end of the season plays out the same. like i said, so few plot changes, just more cohesion and in-character.

next we’ll do seasons 7, 8, then 9 and how they will flow from this build-up better.

#i'm smart and i'm right #supernatural #spn #supernatural season 6 #phyn rambles #let me edit season 6-15 i'll fix them #s7 and s8 will be the biggest overhauls i think #this is what i was thinking about on my morning walk today

[sol1056]

What are your overall thoughts on Castlevania season 3? So far the season, particularly the last two episodes (especially the 9th episode), have been controversial.

Well, that penultimate episode definitely put me in mind of the famous quote…

Obiwan: “I feel a great disturbance in the force…”

Half of which was probably screams into the void over this seeming betrayal, and the other half was shrieks in delight about confirmed OT3 potential.

On a more serious note, I’ve got a bunch of asks about S3, so I’m covering them all in this one response, because my thoughts come down to one thing.

This season was all about trust.

If we can consider this season (much like S1) to be setup, these episodes are for getting characters into the places and mindsets that the following act will require. So whatever we get in S4, it’ll require that Sypha be accustomed to Trevor’s life as an outcast demon-hunter, that Trevor accept his choices impact more than just him, that Alucard repell intrusions on his solitary guardianship, that Carmilla has a bound forgemaster and solid plans to grow an army, and that Issac has a full-sized army of his own. 

A pedestrian approach would have been all plot: a whole lot of running from one place to the next while shouting exposition. It could’ve ended up a truly jarring tonal shift between what’s basically four separate storylines: Alucard and Cho’s former prisoners, Sypha and Trevor and Saint Germain, Isaac’s journey to find Hector, and finally Carmilla and Hector. Though given they hardly interact after the first episode, we could treat this as two parallel storylines: Carmilla and her sisters, and Hector and Lenore.

(Spoilers behind the cut.)

Instead, Ellis uses these four (or five) storylines to explore different issues with trust, betrayal, and isolation. Sypha and Trevor recognize that St Germain’s unexpected willingness to trust wasn’t born of seeing them as trustworthy, so much as a symptom of St Germain’s overwhelming isolation and loneliness – and they even remark on the similarity to someone else, implied to be Alucard. Who – after his highly guarded and distanced interactions with Sypha and Trevor in S2, followed by a month (or a year, Alucard’s lost track) of total isolation – has come to the same place as St Germain. 

In both cases, those finales pivots on whether this third, isolated person can be trusted, as well as whether that person can trust the pair that claims to be helping. St Germain isn’t a fighter, and goes into the finale clearly terrified as to whether Sypha and Trevor can even keep him safe, while Sypha and Trevor have to take it on faith that St Germain’s intentions are good. (If you take Alucard’s animation to indicate that he has no experience as a lover, then the parallels are even more stark.)

Meanwhile, Isaac – as the captain so insightfully points out – remains fixated on the offenses done him, easily dismissing the kindness of an unexpected gift from a stranger. Hector’s issue, on the other hand, is too much trust, given too easily, with no questions ever asked (as Lenore drives home, first through interrogation and second through manipulation). Isaac’s determination not to trust anyone makes his way more difficult, while Hector’s determination not to question his immediate trust in the latest authority figure is what eventually traps him. 

Even the four vampire sisters (an element I really loved, almost making up for the first two seasons’ near-dearth) pivot around issues of trust, but in their case, it’s whether they can trust that Carmilla’s grand vision is feasible. They don’t distrust Carmilla, or her ideas – they distrust that they can fulfill her visionary plan to its fullest extent. But they’re also intrigued by the idea, and clearly competent enough to make it happen – and despite a few times where it seems there might be fractures (more of Lenore’s diplomatic manipulation, in hindsight), the four really do trust each other pretty firmly.

There’s a secondary theme threaded through the storylines, too, although we only hear it stated explicitly in the Isaac and Trevor/Sypha storylines. 

the captain: “If you don’t have your own story, you become part of someone else’s.”

The context here is whether one’s motivation comes from an external source, or is internal to the person. Isaac’s motivation (at least at the midpoint of this season) is clearly stated as revenge on Hector – that is, to rectify Hector’s wrongs that undid Dracula’s story. Alucard, too, is trapped in someone else’s story, as his motivation first is that he thinks helping two lost souls would please his mother, and later that training new demon hunters would please Trevor. 

Sypha’s motivation is simpler: action! adventure! excitement! And in not stopping to consider the source (or the results) of her motivation, she ends up being accessory to not one but three stories (with Trevor along for the ride). The Trevor/Sypha storyline could be seen, in this light, as one in which they’re tools in other peoples’ stories. They fail to warn/assert/react fast enough to prevent the mad priest’s actions, they learn of (and then tackle) the church problem due to the town mayor’s need, and they learn of (and then tackle) the thing in the basement due to St Germain’s need. 

In the end, St Germain (like Dracula) goes onto the next chapter of his story, with Sypha and Trevor left to handle the aftermath (like Isaac). They don’t even reclaim their story with the final discovery of the mayor’s depravity, as they end up (if understandably) destroying the evidence, as the mayor had requested. 

When Trevor echoes the captain’s words (which could be Ellis wanting to drive the point home, or could imply that at some point, Trevor also met the captain), Sypha deflects his point. She’s quite certain she’s been living her own story, and enjoying it immensely. In the aftermath, Trevor turns the point around, saying that for the past few months, they’ve been living Sypha’s life, all action and adventure. 

Trevor: “And now, we’re living my life.”

Trevor’s origins, after all, lie in the destruction of his family – but that destruction wasn’t at the hands of the demons they fought. Instead, it was at the hands of the church, its people, and the larger community. His storyline in S1-S2 was of someone who’d seen the worst of humanity, and ended up deciding to fight because he chose to, not because humanity deserves it.   

With the possible exception of St Germain (which is more of an open question than a certainty), they trusted and discovered their trust wasn’t misplaced, so much as… that taking everything at face value meant they remained blind to what lay beneath. Their story halts with Trevor reminded of why he originally kept people at a distance (through snark and alcohol), and Sypha now enlightened as to how sometimes humans are far worst monsters. 

That blindness is also present in Alucard’s story, when he takes the two young prisoners-turned-hunters at face value. He opens his house (well, most of it) to them, trains them, and tells them secrets of how to hunt his father’s race. It’s a radical shift from his original reaction to the Belmont hold, as a museum dedicated to the extermination of his race.

Which brings me to Ellis’ choice to have the finales as parallel battles, but he manages to have them reflect each other, as well. For Isaac, Sypha, and Trevor, it’s an external battle against an overwhelming foe. Sypha ends with literal blood on her hands, and other than St Germain’s departure, the rest of their victory is literally pyrric.  

For Hector and Alucard, their storylines peak (ahem) at what should be a moment of trust and connection, which is why I can see the choice to have those storylines turn sexual. (Honestly, I thought the two young hunters were just going to cook Alucard dinner in return, or something – I had zero expectations that any story would ever go there.) 

First, five separate battles would’ve been just a lot of chaos, compared to the contrast of apparent happy-endings (or happy-middles). Second, it drives home that Alucard has defenses all over the place, but none to seduction, while Hector simply clings to whomever is willing to call the shots, and only thinks to question later. They’re in the stage of their story that the captain raises to Isaac: after you’ve achieved this goal, what next? What is left for you? 

Which is why I think their parallel endpoints – Isaac’s final battle, Alucard and the hunters, Hector and Lenore – all come to a head at being bound in some way. They’re still playing out someone else’s story, so they run headfirst into situations where that tunnel-vision can be used against them. Isaac may be the least trusting of the lot, but even he shows a remarkable tendency to take things at face value: to trust the gift from the seller, to listen to the captain, to sit and converse with the old witch who tells him about the possessed city. With as little foreknowledge as Alucard or Hector, Isaac rushes in, eyes too fixed on achieving someone else’s goal to see the trap ahead. 

None of the bindings are shown as simple, easy to break, or without lasting effect. At the same time, it’s striking that Isaac and Alucard do manage to force their way free, while Hector can only flail about in pain. To me – given the theme of trust – that implies that somehow, both Alucard and Isaac do have the potential for a balanced trust. That is (unlike Hector) knowing when to take it away, even if both struggle with learning to give it.

Oddly, that’s why I think the season managed to position things beautifully for a next season, because we’ve come full circle. 

It’s a curious thing about Alucard: when we first meet him in S1, he’s recovering from his father’s betrayal (of attacking humans); in S3, he’s recovering from the grief of loss (his parents, his only two friends) – and S4 ends with him shivering in pain/hurt over the betrayal of two people. Gotta wonder how much more Ellis will see fit to break this character down.

In S2, Hector was a valued lieutenant, if terribly blind to the implications of what Dracula wanted. Now those illusions are gone; he’s enslaved, wanted only for his skills (in the forge and in bed) – and the deal is quite explicit. Lenore has the grace to say that Hector should be getting something out of the deal, but that doesn’t change that Hector can’t pretend there’s no deal being made. 

Isaac begins cast out, grieving Dracula (not entirely as a mission, but more as a friend, I think) – and ends with the resources and experiences to go in a new direction. He doesn’t have to take out Hector, who could be seen as small fry, anyway. (Especially given Hector’s now just a shell of a controlled man.) If Isaac chooses to go after Carmilla in S4, that’ll be the first step towards making his story his own. Note also that although Isaac may seem alone, he’s accompanied by a host of creatures. He has allies.

It’s the trust in those allies that seems to determine who ends well, and who does not. Although Trevor and Sypha (especially Sypha) were dealt an emotional blow by the post-battle revelations, they always had each others’ backs – and they leave the town behind, relatively unscathed. Isaac ends victorious, with a few of his army intact and the material to make more. 

But the storyline that ends in the ascendant position is Carmilla’s. With her visionary ideas and her sisters’ abilities to make those visions real, Carmilla is positioned to go exactly where she wants. Which is why it’s also striking that (other than Lenore’s sex scene), neither Carmilla nor her sisters really have a ‘final’ battle. They’re effectively a season ahead of everyone else – the trust between the four is already established, solid, and reciprocated equally. 

So you could say that being foolhardy about trust will land you in hot water – which pretty much covers all the central protagonists. But the story’s not that bleak, despite its final scenes, because it’s also saying that sometimes, to get where you want to be, you do have to take that leap – as illustrated by Isaac and St Germain. Or even that you trust, and if betrayed, you deal with the consequences, learn the lesson, and move on, like Trevor and Sypha. 

Or you learn a different lesson, one preached by dear old dad: put the bodies of your conquests out front on stakes, and lock the doors, and trust no one. Which is a legitimate reaction to betrayal, don’t get me wrong, but one that S3 seems to be firmly saying will only end badly.  

#castlevania #season 3 #sol thinks about stuff

[norgestan]

do you think that the blacklash for eskam s4 wouldn't be so strong if the season aired when it was originally intended? not that i don't think the criticism is unjustified but our expectations have been building and building up since march and for them to be not met on any level is much more disappointing. Obviously there are circumstances out of our control, but if the season originally aired back in april we wouldn't have got that 2nd trailer where kasim was framed as a love interest (1/3)

and maybe it wouldn't of have been such a blow when discovering what he actual purpose is the season is cause it was revealed pretty quickly. I am not trying to say that it's our own fault that we were too hyped up for this season and it's our fault that we were disappointed. Because eskam has proven themselves with the previous seasons, and that's reason enough to be excited. I am just hypothesising if the reactions would be different if the season was aired when it was meant to It might of been worse since it would have been airing during ramadan and might have felt like more of a betrayal to have these storylines during such an important and spiritual time for so many people who this season for (idk, i kinda feel like this season is more for (christian) white people than it is for muslims, lol). Sorry if this is a long ask, kinda want to get my feelings out there, thanks :)

dw anon!!! i love seeing long asks in my box! thank YOU for coming in :)

well first of all, i won’t be able to really comment on that part about muslim representation because i’m not muslim lol. but personally, especially when i look at kasim’s plot if looks like something out of a white mainstream show (cough cough elite), and i’ve already talked about how i think kasim’s motivations and actions are presented so that non-muslim, female teenage audiences can empathize with him for being gay over being muslim. so to that i can agree at some extent!

as for the reaction, i personally think it would’ve been worse. i’ve seen a few muslim blogs in the talk mention how certain clips would feel worse if they were on real time, as eskam fucking up their storylines during ramadan would feel like a bigger blow to them. you make a point about the trailer (and whenever i think about it i rage a little lol) but prior to the season’s release, a lot of us were hoping that they’d introduce a muslim character of color to split yousef’s role in the way eskam did with miquel and alejandro in s3. when we came to know that sofian had been casted by the show, those fans (me included) were hopeful that that’s where the show was heading, and we were effectively getting our first believing yousef in skam history. so the trailer did nothing but to feed the hype that we were already feeling... we were pretty hopeful on kasim being amira’s love interest up until the episode 3 script leaked.

but kasim not being amira’s love interest is definitely not the only problem. i could list you like five different ways in which kasim’s character would’ve been better, more sympathetic and more revelant to amira’s journey and the season’s themes, and eskam just went for the cheapest route to get some drama with both las labass and potentially the girl squad. even if i ignore all the racist, islamophobic and lgbtphobic rethoric of this storyline, eskam already fucked up the writing in terms of:

instead of making the conflict arise from the characters’ flawed personalities and actions, it introduces kasim who acts like a plot device to cause all of these divisions, meaning that kasim has no real character and all the conflict amira is experiencing with dounia rn is based off dumb miscommunication. (aka, the problem isn’t that amira is a Bad Person for outing kasim when he’s ruining her friendship with dounia, the problem is that this is such an ugly way to pin them against each other and create a hell week when we already know there’s other things amira and dounia can disagree with.)

relying on dumb miscommunication when the conflict used to be character-driven. again, the fact that kasim only exists as a plot device means all of this is plot-driven, and therefore, less compelling to watch. add to that the fact that you have to constantly ask yourself why x character is acting in this way, when that had never been a problem before.

depending on exposition and dialogue to develop relationships and characters. one of the things that really bothers me about monday’s clip with dani is that amira tells him that she has a bad temper and she has to control herself better. except that... amira is not like that? sana was like that. amira has always been level-headed and kind, even when she calls people out. she isn’t fierce and impulsive in the way sana was (in s1 we can see how cris is the one to take the fierce edge, like when she liked all of cristian’s photos, threatened to punch inés, called viri out for the photo, etc). but we’re supposed to simply believe this, and that’s why she won’t talk to dounia about kasim? and then there’s all the exposition dump in the extra clips of episode 3 that tells me nothing about why lucas even likes kasim or why kasim is in love with him and why am i supposed to want them to be together. and there’s also dounia describing kasim as a very perceptive, loyal brother that we’ve never seen on this season so far. obviously i don’t expect them to get this right in every season, there’s always gonna be some exposition dump here and there, but things like rewriting amira’s character instead of showing us how hard it is for her to control her temper is such a stupid thing to do when we’re on her pov, to name one of them.

like, not only there are things that are done worse here than how they were done in og, they’re failing by their own standards, representation aside too. the worst thing is that even when they’ve fucked up so many things, they’ve done it in a way that keeps people hooked in and coming back. i’m sure that nora’s season turned more people away than this one. idk if to blame audiences for falling for this festival of half-assery when to me it seems like eskam knew exactly what they were doing when they created the kasim/lucas drama, turned dani into everyone’s favorite love interest, so on and so forth. but i definitely think that at least on tumblr, the outrage would’ve been just as bad, if not worse.

#answered #hitting y'all with yet another long midnight ask #skam españa #meta

[initiumseries]

Which parts of BTVS did you not like and how would you have changed them?

Yes! Great question. 

So, if I’m being honest, most, if not all, of my issues with BTVS start after she graduates high school. I feel like the show lost the magic of the Scoobies bond and the older they got, the more distance we had from them as characters, the more OOC it felt like everyone started behaving, So, I’ll start with s4, buckle in this is gonna be long lol.

Season 4

So as usual, I like the idea of season 4. The gang has graduated, they’re growing up, and trying to find their place in such a big pond. On top of that, the Initiative is on campus (which makes sense, you can’t just blow up a high school and there are no repercussions for that, and it’s kinda cool the idea of instead of a govn’t lockdown, they infiltrate Sunnydale and are running experiments to weaponize demons. Clever, fun. I like it.), and ofc Buffy’s given up having a normal life, but now she just wants a normal relationship, and doesn’t even get that. I’m on board. Especially the idea that the gang inadvertently drifts away from each other because that’s real. That happens when you go away to college, even if you go away together. So my issues, are rooted in the details. 

Maggie Walsh turned into this weird obsessive surrogate mother, who wanted to get Buffy out of the way, except the execution was so sloppy. I LIKED commanding, no nonsense, bitch monster from hell Maggie Walsh, and I would have liked to see that follow through in how she attempts to dispose of Buffy, and how she handles Riley. She becomes this soft, weirdly maternal unhinged force after trying to kill Buffy, and I don’t really understand why. I would have liked to see more of that motherly role, while still rooted in that commander in chief sort of aura she exudes when we first meet her, when it comes to Riley. I also thought her death came too soon, like they just didn’t know what to do with her after she executed her function *coughs in the Anointed One* of creating tension between Buffy and Riley (which, honestly, his being in the Initiative at all would have been enough conflict if they had leaned into that without stuffing so much stuff in there). I definitely would have had Maggie maintain that strength and authority, while softening where necessary to emotionally manipulate Riley. I’d make it really clear that Riley is deeply confused because we believe the hold she has on him, and withdrawal on the drugs would have been a nice touch, but I think it came too soon. Which leads me directly into: 

Super cool. I remember when I first watched this on TV and the gang finally rebonded (after a HILARIOUS episode of them finally addressing their conflicts), they’d reached the climax with the Initiative and Adam and Buffy does a very Sailor Moon thing of all the different emotional strengths of her friends bond together to give her enough power to defeat Adam. LOVE IT. 

Except what’s the point? Prof. Walsh created Adam...for what exactly? We never really get a clear, salient reason for that, bc they kill her, and Adam’s exposition is...not sufficient to explain why she had an off the books project to stitch together a...demon son. It’s weird and especially because Adam doesn’t really do all that much, it really leaves me wondering like, what was the point? For me, I feel like, instead of making Adam a spectator for a lot of the drama that takes place in s4, I would have preferred him be the driving force. behind most things. 

Also: Riley’s Black friend would not have been such an angry misogynistic raging asshole because I’m tired of Black people being The Worst to make the white characters look better, more reasonable.

I would have needed a stronger explanation for Adam trying to turn Riley into...whatever that was. 

Willow would have been bi and I absolutely would have, if I went in that direction, had a much more fleshed out discovery of that fact (Because in this world Seth wouldn’t have left lol). I also would have made sure Willow and the actress who played Tara would have had the chemistry they deserved.  

Anya would not have stayed in Sunnydale. She would have left. She was a poor man’s Cordelia and had 0 character growth or interest. 

Season 5

Again, love the ideas. Suddenly Buffy has a sister we ALL knew wasn’t there before? A God shows up? What I love(d) about Buffy is that the escalations felt so natural? Like it didn’t feel like the show was like HoW dO wE oUtDo oURsElVes aGaIN?! It felt more organic like, well, yeah, the govnt. Oh shit, a GOD? D A M N! And Glory had personality! She was crazy! And it also matches alongside Buffy’s coming to grips with her own abilities. She’s one of the oldest slayers on record at this point, watching her in s1 and in s5 you SEE, her skill level is above and beyond, and now she meets a foe that still provides such a challenge, Buffy is scared. LOVE IT.

So Spike, getting neutered, was interesting at first, but it really starts to wear out its welcome for me, about this time. My problem being, he poses so little of a threat, that all his scenes start to feel like filler and not like they’re driving the plot forward in any useful way. His obsession with Buffy becoming sexual, was INLINE for Spike, but I liked Spike because he was a DICK, he was also dangerous, and after a lot of hilarious moments in S4, watching his basically creep around Buffy’s house and try to manipulate her into spending time together (which felt soooo pathetic to me in a way I didn’t like) and like, the Buffy bot (fucking ew) all season was just, not a fun time. I think, for me, I would have had Spike maintain his dignity as a character and I absolutely would not have had him threaten Dru’s life to drive home his obsession for Buffy. Ew. Yuck. Cringe. I just think there had to be more that Spike could do this season than run around chasing Buffy’s coattails. 

One again, Tara/Willow. Tara had no character development (even in an episode that was created to provide her with development? I definitely would have made use of that episode to create more ACTUAL depth for her character) so then to turn around and have her become mindless for basically the REST of the season, is just, rude lol. And because they have no chemistry and their relationship feels so...baseless, when this moment happens, I don’t feel anything. I don’t believe WIllow would be this angry, this heartbroken, this devastated that she’d take in such dark magicks and blindly go after Glory. I’d believe it if it were Oz, but Tara/Willow do not get the same level of build up and relationship establishing for me to buy this. I would have changed that.

Unpopular opinion, but I also would have made Dawn less of an UTTERLY irritating, shrill, whiny, screaming white tween. I get it, she was supposed to be the baby. But I get nothing from watching a white girl who is mostly just bored and irritated with her life, start shoplifting from her sister’s friends and in general, because she’s kinda sad sometimes. Get a grip. The only time I feel bad for her is when she finds out she’s not real. Actual problems. Wicked, I’m on board. But I think I would have just made her less fucking annoying and whiny and a lot more sympathetic. She still could have been frustrating and bratty, but in a way that was a bit more likeable, so that in those moments where she’s *genuinely* struggling, you feel for her on a broader scope. I would not have made her do all of those incredibly infuriating, incredibly stupid things, like running away in the middle of a dangerous situation. Because it ends up reading to me, like Buffy’s anger, frustration and criticisms of Dawn aren’t her being too hard on her as the eldest, as the Slayer, but accurate because Dawn is a horrendous nightmare of a new human being with no real redeeming qualities. Definitely a better ways to execute that. 

Also, I feel like this season is where the Scoobies drift again, but this time we aren’t really addressing it? Buffy’s dealing with Joyce getting sick, Riley being a POS, Spike stalking her, and she never leans on Willow for any of it. They never even really talk about any of the things going on. It’s such a missed opportunity to lean back into the core gang navigating growing up together. Willow is now basically the guardian of her new partner, and again, we don’t really see WIllow lean on Buffy at all. And Giles is preparing to leave, which, to me, felt organic. He felt like Buffy had outgrown him, but I think he was also trying to rediscover himself, but is pulled back into being a Watcher and he seems both grateful and disappointed. I would have liked to, I donno, make that a little clearer. Also what is Xander doing at this point? He’s outgrown his usefulness as well, so he kinda just becomes a hanger’s on. If Xander doesn’t just leave Sunnydale after s3 or 4. He needs to do *something*, he should have been reintegrated into the group in a new way if it wasn’t through school. 

Season 6 

This is so hard. I feel like this season is just, SO dark, SO heavy, and absent the levity that had been established up til s4. But it’s also really earned. Buffy is going through it. The layers are wonderful. I LOVE IT. But I also needed like...emotional breaks? And this is also kinda where I needed the scoobies to feel like scoobies, and trying to figure out how to help their friend.  Xander and Willow have been friends their entire lives, and season 3 really fleshes out that emotional shorthand they have, but it’s so quickly abandoned in s4 and onward. Suddenly Willow/Xander feel like strangers with Anya and Tara between them. I feel like there should have been more moments of Xander and Willow just..being, and struggling with Buffy’s loss together in a way that only the two of them really understand because like Buffy said Xander has a piece of her that Oz, and so then Tara, can’t reach. That should be a constant thoroughline. Xander should have been the first person to see something wasn’t quite right with Willow and the magic. 

Giles should have left earlier to give more time between him leaving and Buffy coming back. I like the idea of Giles beginning to build a life for himself in England and literally dropping everything once he found out Buffy was back. I emotionally hate the conflict of Willow threatening Giles, but I like it as a character development issue, and Giles definitely should have side eyed Willow, maybe even brought up his concerns later with Xander. 

I think I also would have had Spike leave Sunnydale and come back when Buffy does. I didn’t need a reformed Spike, and it would have been interesting to see him ingratiate himself with the group now that Buffy is back, and he’s the only one who sees how much pain she’s in. 

I HATED Warren and the group. The disgustingly overwhelming and unchecked misogyny and Warren was INSANELY unlikeable. I don’t need to like him, but I needed some catharsis way before we got it. He was HORRENDOUS. 

Even in death, Tara is bland. 

Willow’s magic addiction legit comes out of nowhere. I needed more organic build up than Amy, who has been a rat for like 3 years, suddenly being like “hey I know this guys who can give us magic drugs!” 

The chasm between Willow and Buffy this season would have hit if they hadn’t been distant since s3. 

I think we needed the seeds for Dark!Willow planted a lot earlier like I described. 

Also a lot more evidence that Willow was running away from her nerdy past because when it comes up here, it’s completely left field.

This would have hit harder if they still felt close. 

Season 7

Fuck man, the whole thing was awful. But I ESPECIALLY would have thrown out that left field retcon of Buffy having been in an asylum. I lost sleep over that shit lol.

 But I would have totally rewritten season 7. If Spike’s involvement was necessary (it wasn’t), then I absolutely would not have had her defend him against Wood and Giles. I would have had her treat him extremely coolly. Like a tool they require. There would have been *some* level of redemption for him that was believable within the confines of his character, but not so much that we forget he’s an assaulter.

 The Potentials would have been WAY fucking less horrendously annoying and I really would have leaned into conflict avoidance with the scoobies that reaches a peak when Xander loses his eye. Giles and Buffy would have renegotiated their adult parent/child relationship in a far healthier way and we would have had a lot more interiority with Buffy like we’ve had, pretty much since the show’s inception. 

Angel would have been there when Buffy was isolated and alone, not Spike. Because #bangel4lyfe lmao. They still woulda kissed as a “greeting” lol. Buffy would not have told Spike she loved him, or that she ever loved him. She woulda told that dude thank you and dipped out of the cave lol. 

[curioussubjects]

come be a season 12 truther, baby, with me

In honor of tonight’s Berens/Glynn episode (!!!!), I’d like to take y’all on a magical journey in which I share why I think Dean and Cas got together in season 12. 

Keep in mind that this post takes for granted that Dean and Cas are in love with each other and that their relationship has been increasingly coded as romantic with each passing season. Consequently, what this post does is point out some key moments in their relationship and argue why they don't get together before 12. I'll also go briefly over 13 and 14 for reasons I'll explain later in the post. First, though, let me go over seasons 4 through 11, with some pit stops along the way:

Seasons 4 & 5: this isn’t the destiel you are looking for. the ust is delicious, yes, and i, too, got sucked in posthaste immediately groped by an angel lj community style. At this point Cas is still too alien for anything beyond the development we see on screen happen. HOWEVER, season 5 is the first time we get to see Cas being human (The End) and Cas being less connected to heaven and how that affects his behavior. This will matter. 

Seasons 6 & 7: the pining omg the pining. The notable things I want to point out with these seasons is a. this is the beginning of Cas doing things to spare Dean and it not ending well (Cas dies #1, soulless!Sam); b. Dean is v. sad; and c. we also start noticing the emotional toll of Cas’s divided loyalties and how human he has actually become since s4. Hurty feels all around.  

Season 8: purgaytory babes aw yeah! Still lots of terrible awful pining. This is a turning point with the addition of the bunker as tfw hq: we have a home in play now, a static emotional center. Cas is still off doing his own thing, Dean still wishes Cas would just let him (+ Sam) help out. Cas going off on his own leads to disaster #2 (Angels fall, Cas loses his Grace). For all deliciously angsty get together purgatory fics and spec, there’s too much of a gap between Dean and Cas on Cas’s part due to his guilt over betraying the Winchesters in s6 & slaughtering angels & leviathan. On the other hand, we do see Dean being more emotionally open, but to no avail. Bad timing. This is a trend. [oop also worth noting we get Dean being kinda done with the one night stand thing because always with the adios and ahem also hint hint Cas refusing to stay put]

Seasons 9 & 10: aka Dean and Cas make bad decisions, but mostly Dean. The biggest turning point here is Cas being human for an extended period of time. There is still plenty of spec over the effects of being human on Cas’s Grace and his Soul. What we can say for sure, though, is that Cas is much more human once he becomes an angel again. In contrast to s8, s9 sees Cas being vulnerable and Dean pushing him away (first because of Gadreel, which he didn’t want to do really and that’s even sadder kdjfgksdfj & later because he was pushing everyone away due to the mark).  

9.06 Heaven Can’t Wait: there’s been so much amazing fic and spec about this episode with its fanfiction gap, but I can’t see a deancas get together here, folks. I know, it’s terrible. The lying from Dean and the hurt from Cas, imo, make the distance between them quite insurmountable at this point. While the episode is amazing (Bobo’s debut, too! So ♥) and has some notorious subtext throughout, I just can’t see the character bridging that gap into anything physical, much less emotional. Nevertheless, this episode does show perhaps the first intentional romantic tableaux with Dean and Cas, and that’s not nothing. 

10.16 Paint it Black: from the point Dean gets the mark of cain until the end of season 10, anything between him and Cas is quite impossible. But one of the reasons I’m bringing up this episode in particular is because of the confession scene. For one, it’s a rare bit of emotional honesty from Dean and for two, it tells me that while he and Cas may be well aware of the thing between them, it’s still uncharted waters. Makes sense, too, there’s been A LOT going on since s6.  Anyway, he’s the full confession, so we can put a pin on it:

You know, the life I live, the work I do…I pretty much just figured that that was all there was to me, you know? Tear around and jam the key in the ignition and haul ass until I ran out of gas. I guess I just thought sooner or later, I’d go out the same way that I live – pedal to the metal, and that would be it. [...]  Now, um… recent events, uh… make me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And…I don’t know. I mean, you know, there’s – there’s things, there’s…people, feelings that I-I-I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time. [...]  Yeah, I’m just starting to think that… maybe there’s more to it all than I thought.

Do you ever see a character having an epiphany and find yourself wanting to cry because this is it right here. Dean is just blatantly admitting he wants more, which all culminates in season 11, so...

Season 11: The pining is still here, but it’s worse now since it’s the whole plot? It’s been *checks calendar* 5 years of this. How are any of us still kicking I don’t know. Your slow burns could never. Cool worth noting points: Cas says yes to Luci (bad decision #2.5, lots of mitigating effects_I don’t actually hold it against him that much but Dean is another story & not entirely rational at this point); for the first time since the early days, Dean and Cas are on equal grounds: they’ve both fucked up a lot and have hurt each other. The issues this season are outside their dynamic. Amara and Lucifer here serve as externalizing forces for Dean and Cas’s problems and by the end of the season we’re getting a clean slate. We’re also getting a new showrunner, so. No wonder. What this season does that is also super important is that it sets up the stage for the possibility of an actual relationship between Dean and Cas, something that has, up until this point, been pretty much impossible. 

11.04 Baby: Y’all know what I’m about to quote here, right? The convo between Dean and Sam about having something with someone who understands the life. Here we still have Dean reverting to the idea that it’s impossible, which is a direct contrast to the openness in 10.16. It’s understandable, though, considering there’s been little reason to think anything like that would be possible (see all the mess and poor timing from seasons past). The quote in question, though, marks a continuing development in on of the things Dean is struggling with this season:

DEAN: Piper? That's awesome. Heather. One-night wonders, man. Shoot, we're lucky we still get that at all.  SAM: Really? You don't . . . Ever want something more? DEAN: I'm sorry, have you met us? We're batting a whopping zero in domestic life, man. Goose eggs. SAM: You don't ever think about something? Not marriage or whatever. But . . . Something? You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?

Compare this exchange with what we get from 11.11 and 11.19:

11.11 Into the Mystic: I’m bringing this episode as a crossreference to 10.16 and to show again that for all the closeness between Dean and Cas there’s still a marked distance they haven’t yet bridged. Thanks Mildred for the delicious exposition:

Darlin'...If there's one thing I've learned in all my years on the road, it's when somebody's pining for somebody else. [...]  Oh, don't try and hide it now. Follow your heart. Remember?

11.19 The Chitters: Continuing our trek regarding Dean wanting certain things we have this gift of an episode with Jesse and Cesar, and this exchange:

Dean: [with realization] Oh, so … [points back and forth to Jesse and Cesar] Cesar: Yeah. Dean: Okay, that’s… Cesar puts his beer bottle on the table and looks at Dean, while Jesse is being silent. Dean: What’s it like, settling down with a hunter? Cesar: Smelly, dirty. [turns to Jesse] Twice the worrying about getting ganked.

I’d like to point out, too that the fear of getting ganked is thematic when it comes to the tension between Dean and Cas. More on this when we hit s13. 

Alright, now having said that, let’s take a look at season 12. Bear in mind, this is the official start of Dabb’s era, even if he kinda began taking over in 11, and the change in vibes is obvious. In fact, 12 jumped out at me as a turning point in retrospect, after getting smacked by the domesticity of 13 and 14. Under the cut because I can’t shut up, and things are long enough as is. 

Season 12:  Finally, the promise land, y’all. So, what s11 was for Dean in terms of setting up the relationship stage, s12 was for Cas. In its initial beats, any way. Important to keep in mind that until the Kelly debacle, this was the longest Cas has been around the bunker. Things seem remarkably chill. Of course, we’ll notice that there’s still a lot of baggage hanging around because despite Dean and Cas being in a more stable place, they haven’t actually dealt with their interpersonal problems. I didn’t single out directly this episode, but do keep in mind Cas’s declaration in 12.09 First Blood as far as how much the Winchesters matter to Cas & how we also see Dean and Cas be particularly singled out with them seating together in the backseat of the Impala. 

12.10 Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets: This episode, oh my god, the goodness. In the wake of 12.09 we have Dean and Cas in a tiff because Cas mistake #3 (killing Billie and “cosmic consequences”), this is a pattern. Twice the worry of getting ganked, etc etc. But where this episode really shines is through the contrast between Ishim’s obsession with Lily and Cas & Dean’s mutual affection for each other. Ishim sees no difference here and, to him, Cas’s feelings for Dean are a human weakness. Returning to my point about human!Cas, this episode underscores that Cas’s increasing humanity is what puts him in the place where he can want what Dean wants instead of either being too alien to get it (see s4 & 5) or unable to experience it properly (Ishim). 

12.12 Stuck in the Middle (With You): Cas’s trajectory culminates here with the whole I love you (@ Dean), I love all of you (@ Winchesters). Let’s note too that Cas is dying here, in a way that is much more human than going up in light. This declaration of different types of love is entirely human. It’s also a definitive step wrt to Cas and Dean’s relationship because of what happens in 12.19. This. is. it.

Offscreen happenings: Mixtape, how Cas knows the Colt is under Dean’s pillow. This is hella suspicious. 

12.19 The Future: This episode changes everything, y’all (bobo and meredith, folks, bobo and meredith ksjdhfakjshlfksd). Consider watching this episode again and pay attention to some weird things: 1. Dean’s reaction to Cas going awol. Compare it to Sam’s, who is like whoa Dean chill. Now, thought experiment, imagine something happened between Dean and Cas, and then just radio silence from Cas. Imagine how Dean would react with getting ghosted by Cas specifically after something happened between them.  2. Cas comes back to the bunker with the specific goal of stealing the Colt, which he already knew was under Dean’s pillow -- something Sam didn’t even know.  3. “He came into my room and he played me.” So, this quote right there, makes it seem like some seduction for personal gain, right? But Cas clearly knew where the Colt was already, which means something happened before  Cas came back to the bunker. Cas played Dean in seeming to have reconsidered not working with Sam and Dean wrt Kelly. This is still a point of drama, but it leads somewhere else (see s13 & s15). 4. WHEN DID DEAN GIVE CAS THAT MIXTAPE OMG 5. Dean and Cas’s brief convo in Dean’s room is clearly Dean just wanting Cas to stay, so they can work (and be) together -- because they’re better that way. Which, yeah, truth. 

Sequence of events: Cas tells Dean he loves him -- Dean is clearly shook by it -- Dean gives Cas a mixtape (romantic gesture, often a declaration of feelings; in true Dean speak too lolsobs) -- Cas somehow knows the Colt is under Dean’s pillow -- ???? -- Cas goes awol -- Dean acts like he got ghosted by his partner.

Like. Y’all realize they probably had some emotionally constipated getting together moment, right? Something that Dean clearly initially thought meant things were gonna change, now. Something that Cas couldn’t allow to happen until he could give Dean a win. Y’all are seeing this, yeah? I’m not saying they slept together and were full of feelings, except that’s kind of what I’m saying. But ymmv, there are other possibilities beyond sex. The full of feelings isn’t up for debate, though, even if the whole thing is informed by ridiculous amounts of miscommunication. 

Ok, maybe the narrative is still too subtle (?????), but as I said before, looking at 12 with the knowledge of 13 and 14 does offer a new perspective because of the difference in dynamic between Dean and Cas. I know lots of people look at 14, mainly, as having dialed back on the destiel side of things, but I always thought that was a strange take. Largely because they’re so domestic and their dynamic, ie, the lack of tension, reads like an established relationship. It’s a different kind of beast than we have been used to so far, so it does look alien on screen, especially since we “skipped” the conventional getting together cue that would let us change gears. Let’s take a look at 13 and 14, then.

Season 13: Ah, yes, the season of shit gets domestic. The pining? Gone? What? Deancas now reading like an established couple? It’s more likely than you think.

13.1-13.5: Dean’s grief mini-arc. Dude’s acting like a widower. We all know this. I want to gesture towards the reunion moment though with “it’s never too late to start all over again.” To. Start. All. Over. Again. I’m just saying. 

13.6 Tombstone: hi this episode is pure love and Dean is so happy his sweetheart is back from the dead? He’s even ok being Jack’s third dad now? What a time to be alive. Also? apparently Dean and Cas were just having movie night together? Dates? Mutual Pining dates prior to shit going to hell in 12? Do you ever cry? What else are they getting up to offscreen? What else will they get up to off screen? MUCH TO THINK ABOUT. 

Season 14: MORE DOMESTICITY. With some pining because Michael. But...heart eyes when Dean comes back? Watch that scene again with Dean going off to shower. Suspicious. But then shit hits the fan and we’re all sad again. boo. 

14.15 Peace of Mind: Look me in the eye and tell me Dean and Cas talking in the kitchen about Jack doesn’t read like husbands talking about their child. Look me in the eye and tell me Cas just texting Dean to gossip about Sam isn’t coupley asf. 

14.18-14.20: Ah, yes, the divorce arc. Awful. Terrible. The culmination of Dean’s problem in all this: he lashes out, he pushes Cas away, his anger is alienating. Cue all of us suffering. But while Dean is clearly in the wrong in how the deals with his feelings, let’s not pretend some of his anger doesn’t come from a long established issue between him and Cas, which had its last traumatic turn when Cas died in s12. Dean isn’t being rational here; he saw Cas doing something on his own, and he saw that his mother is dead. What else could happen? Why won’t Cas just trust they can work as a team? Divorce arc was entirely too literal. 

But what about what we’re building up in 15? That seems like it could be a getting together plot, too, right? Well, yeah. It could very well be. But I’d argue the tension we’re seeing isn’t a will they or won’t they because they already have. The tension is instead will they or won’t they use their words to talk about the baggage that has kept them from truly being confident about their relationship. There’s a crucial step in their togetherness that they’re still missing, which is also the bedrock of the divorce arc that spanned TWELVE FRIGGIN’ EPISODES. Y’all. Y’all that’s half a season. And we’re not even entirely done with it yet because Dean was cut short in purgatory, and they haven’t dealt with Cas’s side of blame in this mess yet either -- that Cas keeps going off on his own and getting hurt (and getting other people hurt), and Dean has to deal with the fallout. The deep emotional understanding, the truly being on the same page is what we’re on the edge of our seats for. And, you know, that’s a whole lot more exciting than witnessing their for realsies first kiss. I’m also confident Dabb & co will deliver the conclusion to this emotional arc and it will be a whole mess of feelings on all our parts. 

For the moment, though, it’s looking a lot like Dean and Cas had a rocky start to their ~involvement, then DEATH, then they got together feat. sweet sweet domestic fluff, then DIVORCE. So, yeah. Season 12, guys; it’s where it’s at. 

As for the more performative aspect of Dean and Cas’s relationship…that’s a whole other thing and all I can say is they got the green light for something, but I don’t know what it is and it’s driving me bananas, but it’s definitely something and we can talk about that, too. Place your bets, etc.  I’m clowning on the “I love you” pay off because it’s a glaring missing piece in this whole story. See also: holding hands? Carving Cas’s initials on the table? Saileen endgame parallels? All supported by the narrative. Like a lot. So. *finger guns*

#destiel #deancas #supernatural #dean winchester #castiel #spn #spn meta #my writing #one day i'll title my posts after things that aren't questionable songs #but today is not that day #this post has strong ship manifesto from the late 00's vibes #i miss those things they were handy

[mysterylover123]

BNHA Rewatch: Two Heroes

mysterylover123

And before we start Season 3, one more road stop: The Big Freaking Movie, Two Heroes, last year’s surprise anime blockbuster and HeroAca’s first excursion onto the big screen. Time to share my thoughts and rewatch this very entertaining film!

We open with bald eagles, deserts, and cowpoke themes, to make sure we know we’re in America. We fly into “California” which looks more like Las Vegas (not really complaining, I loooove that they picked my hometown state for this) to find young, white schlera eye-having All Might and his hunky bro David Shield kicking ass and taking names. My state’s name, to be precise. 

Some exposition follows, basically recapping the premise of HeroAca, as I’m reminded of what a stroke of genius Hori had when he decided to make the MC an easy expositor thanks to his geeky knowledge of all things Hero. Deku will always be Captain Exposition.

Melissa! She’s fun and adorable and amazing, and I just love that the first HeroAca movie chooses to focus on a geeky, kind and energetic lady. 

Deku looking back and forth between Melissa’s breasts and All Might’s crotch belt is peak Bi energy.

I’m so jealous that Melissa gets to touch Deku’s hand.

Melissa describing All Might as someone David ‘loves’ is just throwing away all pretence of his heterosexuality, if it ever existed. How the hell did this guy end up with a kid?

Deku blushing around and enthusing over both Melissa and David is max bi energy.

Uraraka’s Annoying Crush Counter: 5

But I’m glad the girls are here! The Bones animators clearly know well what the fanbase wants to see, choosing to give all 6 class 1-A girls at least a cameo in the film, and three of them involved in the main plot. I especially love that, despite being initially pitted against each other, Uraraka and Melissa develop a bit of a womance in the film. OchaLissa ship!

My one major regret about this film is that Mineta is included in the Main Cast. I wish either Mina or Tsuyu had come along for the ride instead - one, they’re better, more lovable characters who could do the same job he does, and two, then we’d have a nearly gender-even cast! (6 Boys: Deku, Katsuki, Tenya, Shoto, Kiri, Kaminari; 5 Girls: Ochaco, Momo, Jiro, Melissa, Mina or Tsu). 

Kacchan makes his appearance! This bit was leaked online before the film’s release and drew quite a lot of ire from BKDK shippers and Bakugo fans. I’m mostly annoyed that Deku is acting OOC here; this is Post-Final Exam Deku, post Hero Killer Deku. Would the guy who punched All Might in the face and Bakugo in the face and the Hero Killer in the face be cowering in fear behind Iida, the guy whose life he saved, from the guy he, only a few weeks ago, punched in the face?! Badass Deku Rights!

Ooh a wild Todobaku moment! I always love when they bicker. Or rather, Katsuki bickers and Shoto ignores him.

OH NO you cannot slap me with the Ingenium OST theme and hardcore feels out of nowhere! God this scene is heartbreaking. I love, however, the cut to the whole of Class 1-A and Melissa when they talk about the future.

AH Bakugo’s feet! Why are we staring up his crotch? So this movie has a lot of KiriBaku scenes, and I should probably talk about them a little, since their friendship is a big deal in S3. They’re the only major HeroAca ship I’ve never shipped as a romantic pairing, per se. Like, in this scene, I see Kiri as Katsuki’s wingman, his bro, the guy who teases him about his obvious feelings from someone, not as the guy he has feelings for.

And for Kiri’s sake, I kinda dislike making him basically Bakugo’s sidekick. He willingly hangs out with the guy, when he wants to, in canon, he doesn’t follow him around and become the butt of the joke, and he has lots of other relationships in canon to draw from, so this dynamic between them doesn’t appeal to me.

Melissa being a quirkless kid like Deku is a great idea for the film, especially since she and David still find a way to help others. They’re a brighter image of the person Izuku could have been. 

Full Gauntlet is pretty cool

Everyone dresses up pretty! The movie suits/dresses are awesome and (almost) everyone looks great. Why Deku is wearing a baggy zoot-suity mess is beyond me, but hey, he sheds it pretty quickly so I’m not complaining. 

If by ‘female assassin’ you mean Beauty Queen. Jiro is gorgeous.

OK the plot ensues! Darn, I could’ve easily enjoyed a movie that was just everyone hanging out and goofing off...ah well, I still love what we got.

This villain does what neither Tomura nor All for One could ever do! Subdue All Might! My god he’s a criminal mastermind!

Deku wants to help, and everyone but Shoto basically piles on the bandwagon afterwards. “And me!” “And me!” “Me too!” “And Me” “Nobody cares Mineta.” I like how they bring up the Powers dilemma, since that’s a big deal in Season 3.

I was pretty impressed by the amount of level grinding our heroes had to do to make it to the top floor. 200 freaking floors, that’s impressive.

Todoroki saved Bakugo! Yay! BTW I love all the tactical planning stuff in this portion, and how lots of characters get to contribute.

10 little superheroes, trying to save the day. Two got lost and then there were eight.

8 little superheroes, escaping from the garden. One saved the others and then there were seven.

7 little superheroes running against the sea, four were trapped by robots and then there were three. (i don’t count mineta). 

Three little superheroes, reached the top and flew; one had to float them so then there were two. (she’s fine, Bakugo saved her. Save to win!)

Two little superheroes, faced with a gun. One fell out the window and then there was - never mind, she saved him, he’s fine.

That was fun. Anyway, to sum, the group gets split up as they work to get to the top, leaving only Deku and Melissa to reach the final boss dungeon. Highlights include the usual Kamijiro bantering, Todobaku making an awesome combat move, Uraraka standing against the coming onslaught of robots in a weirdly dramatic scene, and Reciproburst.

Dislikes include Kirishima being portrayed as not much use and kind of stupid (c’mon, he can do better than that!) and Uraraka not getting to kick any real ass other than floating Melissa and Deku. 

So we make it to Dramatic Plot Twist Tower and find out that David set up the whole thing. I joke, but I actually didn’t see this coming the first time around and was genuinely surprised. I also think it fits really well with the story they’re telling here: about trying to hold onto the past and forgetting to look to the future. I usually measure good plot twists in terms of how they change the story, characters and themes, and this one does.

On the other hand, Sam betraying him is just kind of silly. “Oh no, not...that guy!”

The villain being named Wolfram makes me wonder if there are any secret Buffyverse fans on Bones’ writing staff. With the next movie’s villain be named Hart?

I love how Melissa is a quirkless character who gets to save the day every bit as much as the powered ones. Also, Deku is freaking awesome in this scene, ngl. It has vibes of his fight with Muscular, that “pinned by an unstoppable wall” thing.

And this has vibes of Deku vs Overhaul trying to save Eri. OMG S4 IS GONNA KILL ME. Anyway Deku tries really really hard to save David Shield and does lots of cool leaps and gets beaten up while doing it, enough to earn some of Wolfram’s respect, but is unable to. Fortunately...

Watashi Ga Kita!

But then...duh duh duh! Wolfram has that power-enhancer-plot MacGuffin! Actually, it’s not a MacGuffin now, because now we the audience kind of care about it. It has weight, it’s significant. The characters care about it, but there’s more to it than just being an interchangeable object.

I LOVE how they animated the metal on this guy. That’s Metalbending. OMG. 

Class 1-A showing up and kicking ass as always. I just wanna quibble for a second with how this movie uses Howitzer Impact: a giant mind-blowing explosion in manga canon, a small underwhelming fizzle here.

DUH DUH DUH DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST. Again this one floored me the first time around. My jaw actually dropped when AFO’s theme started playing. Holy crap WHAH How what how. I’m not as excited about this plot twist, as it basically just happens for the sake of being shocking, but hey, that is clearly something AFO would do, and I like seeing him and hearing his theme here anyway, so who cares. Just roll with it!

And now, the reason this movie was made and the premise behind it. We never, in the canon of the manga, actually get to see All Might and Deku fight the same villain at the same time, so the movie I think was made for that purpose: DOUBLE DELAWARE DETROIT SMASH + YSR

OH YOU SAY RUN. You could soundtrack a scene of people sitting around staring at the wall and turn it into the most epic thing ever. I will never get tired of this beautiful, peerless, impossibly good composition. And this is honestly one of my favorite YSR scenes, because dayum, you can’t get much cooler than the Double DD smash. 

Visual storytelling here is on point. David Shield’s image of All Might turning into Deku is perfect.

We end on a sunrise, fittingly, and Long Hope Philia sountracked credits - with a small bit of depressing to end on, as we see David is probably gonna get arrested and All Might can’t do nothing about it.

Two Heroes is great. My quibbles with it are all minor. It’s the perfect first movie for BNHA; it is big and bombastic and action-packed, but more important, it gets what MHA is about at it’s core. BNHA is a story about the prior generation of heroes (and villains) passing the torch down to the next one. You know, like how teachers pass info onto their students in Academia. The movie gets that, and it delivers it with aplomb. It’s a great script, every scene and moment is necessary and everything happens in the right place and right order. It’s a thrill to watch, and I can’t even begin to imagine what insane stuff they’re gonna put in Movie #2 BKDK Boogaloo. Starting S3 tomorrow!

BKDK CORNER:

On a rewatch, I’m a little more OK with this scene, because Deku pretty quickly bucks up and takes the challenge - and he doesn’t exactly cower from Kacchan, Iida just gets in the way. I also love that gay sounding “Kacchan, people are watching!” line in the sub. 

All of Deku’s Love interests where white flowers on their fancy wear.

NGL this is my favorite part of the movie. That is the sweetest, softest, most endearing smile Bakugo has ever had, and Todoroki seeing it and smirking is just perfect. Baku is peak Tsundere in this scene.

RANKER: The Formal Wear

Girls:

4. Momo - I like the tiara, and the dress is kind of a nice color.

3. Melissa - pretty but a little birthday cake-y.

2. Ochaco - Very cute and well-tailored. The tights really sell it.

1. Jiro - unconventional is the winner of the day here.

Boys:

6. Izuku - Deku where the f did you get that suit? Take it off, please. Why is your taste in clothing so bad.

5. Kirishima - it’s ok, but a little generic.

4. Kaminari - the waiter look isn’t half bad on him

3. Iida - sharp dressed, of course. It looks nice!

2. Todoroki - perfectly handsome, and of course his suit is white.

1. Bakugo - that vest tho. damn. 

#my hero academia #my hero academia two heroes #bnha movie #midoriya izuku #All Might #melissa shield #katsuki bakugou #katsudeku #bnha two heroes