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disco-tea · 2 years

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Something Old, Something New

All right, I’m digging myself a hole by making yet another fic idea that could so easily be turned into a full blown fic that I don’t have the time/mental capacity for, but I still wanna put it out there

Basically in a kinder world where the shadow of S6 doesn’t loom quite so heavy and where S7 has more room for such shenanigans, imagine an episode called Something Old, Something New and it’s situated in the back half of the season in the middle of the build to the season’s climax and it serves as comic relief. Like the last silly goofy crazy episode before the big scary finale. And it opens as like a “morning after this really weird insane party/morning after in Vegas” style episode and nobody can really remember what happened at first and they have to piece it together. The house is a mess, they’re all dressed up, even Spike, they feel like they’ve been in a fight. And why the hell is Buffy in a wedding dress? I feel like they probably start piecing stuff together pretty quick and they finally figure out what happened by looking at Andrew’s camera footage. Then the rest of the episode cuts to flashbacks.

So basically, the premise is, somebody is messing around with powerful magics. Maybe it’s Ethan. Maybe it’s an accident. I think it would be fun if it was Ethan working for the First but he specializes in chaos and is more focused on that than actually killing the First’s enemies.

But regardless, somebody does some sort of spell and it causes certain old spells to rebound. The spell in question, or one of them at least, is Buffy and Spike’s engagement spell. It’s something blue all over again. Spike and Buffy are getting married! And you have them being obnoxious and annoying undercut with the genuine care and trust and dynamics they have in S7. So maybe that’s why some people don’t immediately clock it as a spell, because Buffy’s been acting weird about Spike for several episodes so they’re very disappointed, but not surprised. Xander is upset and done with the whole situation, but he accepts it and awkwardly buys them a toaster as a wedding gift. Willow and Giles probably figure it out, but by then it’s too late because this spell is contagious. And slowly, the spell spreads to everyone in the town, or what’s left of everyone, and they all decide there’s no time like the present and they’re going to organize/attend the wedding of Buffy the Slayer and William the Bloody!

And it’s absolutely insane and ridiculous. Just pure crack. Because even the bad guys and the entire demon population are in on it. Even people who hate the match. They all have a part in it.

Giles walks Buffy down the isle as planned, which is only a little awkward because he tried to have the groom killed a handful of weeks ago. Anya is the meticulous wedding planner who organizes everything and is just a little unhinged because she never got her perfect wedding so shes living vicariously. Clem is the best man. I’m torn between Dawn as the Maid of Honor or the ring bearer. If she’s the ring bearer, Willow is the Maid of Honor. Buffy has a whole brood of potential slayer bridesmaids. Xander is still off the usher list, they give that to Faith and Robin. Andrew is the wedding photographer who films the whole thing and cries the entire time.

And Caleb marries them.

The First is really pissed about it because it’s the only thing not affected by the spell and it has to watch its right hand man act like a complete moron at the enemy’s wedding and shed literal tears while they exchange vows. Also maybe there’s a ridiculous throwaway line where Caleb says he would’ve brought a wedding present, but he couldn’t get the darn thing out of the stone.

The entire town, or what’s left of it, attends. Human, vampire, former classmates. demon, Turok-Han, Bringers. Everybody. The seating arrangements are insane. And because everybody is in on it, there is a 100% notarized, legal wedding certificate. It’s the weirdest completely official wedding ever.

I feel like towards the end, everything does descend into chaos somehow for a little while. Maybe that was the plan all along, get everybody together so they’d all die/kill each other. Or maybe the First’s people men are getting massacred so it makes Ethan put them all to sleep instead. Or Ethan betrays the First and it gets him killed. I don’t know how I’d end it exactly, but I’d want them all wake up the next day magically hung over and looking like they went to a fancy event that turned into a fight. Spike’s suit is torn. Buffy’s dressed is splattered with blood.

And in the very end, Buffy and Spike find their wedding certificate.

I also feel like the other spells gone wrong maybe pop up throughout episode or there are a bunch of fun callbacks. So like Giles temporarily gets turned into a demon or goes blind…or a blind demon, but Willow fixes it. Mr. Teeth and the Cheese Man are at the wedding. Somebody sings a song or Sweet straight up goes to the wedding. At least one person briefly forgets who they are and somebody else goes mute. Xander nods off during the ceremonyand has a nightmare about Sinya and jolts back awake. Somebody from the Wishverse and maybe a few other dead MOTW low key attend. Sid, the dummy from season 1, is in the crowd and whistles at Buffy in her wedding dress and Spike is about 3 seconds from throwing hands with a literal puppet. Fun stuff like that, that celebrates the chaotic side of the show, all to the backdrop of Buffy and Spike’s insane wedding.

And if you wanted a slightly sad/bittersweet moment…Joyce is there. Just for a moment, she’s really there. A few other people who died too maybe. Buffy sees her seated with everyone else, smiling and waving at her. Maybe she’s seated with a whole row of ghosts. (Jenny, Kendra, etc) And just for a moment, one moment in all this silly chaos…Buffy feels happy, feels closure. Maybe it is ‘fake’ maybe it is all magically induced, but the love she feels is real, and just for one little moment before it’s all destroyed, before Sunnydale itself is destroyed. Buffy gets to live in a world where it all intersects. The good the bad the demons the monsters, her family her friends, the people she loves. It’s a strange little goodbye to the strange little world her myth has created.

She takes in the room, in all it’s odd little glory, and then she turns to Spike and they exchange their vows. Vows too meaningful and personal to just be a spell.

And again, in the end, Buffy and Spike find their wedding certificate, which is folded up in the inner pocket of Spike’s suit. They look up at each other, locking eyes across the room.

Cut to black.

#buffy the vampire slayer #spuffy #btvs imagine #my fanfic

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acerace · 3 years

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...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo)

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway)

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will!

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao

#hermitcraft #mindcrack #vintagebeef #mcyt #long post #asks #redwinterrises #that was so many words #kudos to anyone who reads the whole thing lmao

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dontbipanicjonsa · 3 years

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Did Kit suddenly lose his ability to heart-eye or is Pol!Jon actually a thing.

I'm late to the fandom but I just finished S7 and I'm having thoughts.

I'm a reader of the books, and I hadn't watched the show till now because... I suck at watching shows with hour long episodes and more than three seasons.

What made me decide to watch it was the Pol!Jon discourse I found on the Internet.

I know enough about the show to understand how unlikely and out of character this theory would seem to show watchers. At the same time, I fully believe that book!Jon would be fully capable of something like this. But also, even though I do ship Jonsa in the books, I can't deny that Jonerys is.....a big deal. Everyone expects it to happen. It's a highly anticipated pairing and....I just couldn't honestly believe Pol!Jon because it is just so against the general expectation.

So I decided to watch the show. And now I've finished season 7 and I am astounded.

Let me preface this by saying that I went into S7 already disliking Jonerys (sue me) but I still fully expected to have some serious doubts about the validity of Jonsa. I fully expected to be at least somewhat convinced of Jonerys. Even hating the idea of Jon and Danaerys together, I still expected more.

There are a number of things I would like to note here.

First, Jonerys is a romance that is told, not shown. Davos talks about Jon watching Dany's "good heart" (hehe) to tell us Jon is attracted to Dany. But then Jon immediately dismisses it- and not in a way that looks like he's deflecting. He's not only dismissing it, he's dismissive of it. His mind is not in the conversation, it is beyond the Wall.

Similarly, Tyrion says (not in those words), "yeah right, and Jon only looks at you longingly coz he wants a military alliance with you". Not sure what I'm supposed to think about that....? First, Jon doesn't look at Dany longingly at all???? Not once. Second, is this line supposed to suggest that Jon is looking at her longingly for a reason that is not desperately wanting a military alliance....? Because we already know that that's exactly what he does want. Wtf do I make of this statement?????

There are other examples, but the point remains. People keep talking about Jon and Dany being into each other, and that is what is supposed to convince us that they are into each other (well yea Dany is) but Jon gives no indication of looking at her longingly, of falling in love with her, of being intrigued by her even. He's a brick wall.

Alright, I'll concede one (1) scene where I saw legitimate attraction on his face for a second- that is the cave scene. Even there tho, it's hard to tell if he's just watching her reaction carefully or if he wants to bang her.

On the other hand, Dany shows that she is into him. Even so, when I say she's into him, I mean she's attracted to him and intrigued by him. I cannot believe she loves him.

Next, I think it's interesting that in the episode before (or was it the same episode?) Jon bends the knee, we have a number of people (Tormund, Beric) talk about stuff like- kings not bending the knee leading to people dying, knowing what's important (the fight against the dead), being the shield that guards the realm of men blah blah I don't remember the exact words. Then he sees the WW and the Army of the Dead (again) and sees a dragon die. And then, the first opportunity he gets, he bends the knee. I want to point out here that the scenes really emphasise on Jon's thinking face after every conversation he has during their little gay party beyond the Wall. They focus on the look on his face again while he's watching the Army. Multiple times. And there's clearly something going on in his head, gears are turning.

One other scene that struck me is the scene where Jon and Dany are saying goodbye to each other (the Eastwatch episode). In the same episode (if I remember correctly) Jon calls them strangers, and then the goodbye scene comes and Dany says to Jon's little morbid joke, "I've grown used to him". Him being Jon. Two things to note here-

One, Jon considers them strangers but Dany has gotten "used to him". Maybe it's nothing, or maybe it's an indication of how the two of them are absolutely not on the same page (about anything).

Second, Jon's face after she says that. It shuts down. Like a door slamming. And then he says that "wish you good fortune in the wars to come" line, which has ZERO romance, or longing, but a whole lot of bad precedent (does that make sense?). Ouch. The thought that occured to me here is that Dany is being somewhat obvious about her feelings, and maybe, just maybe Jon has picked up on it. And that is why he reacts the way he does.

I wasn't sure so I compared the scene with the Jonsa forehead kiss scene in S6, and Jon's expressions after that kiss.

My logic was this- I assume that either Jon has become aware of Dany's feelings in the Eastwatch goodbye scene, or his own feelings for her. One of these assumptions is true. Which one?

If Jon has feelings for Sansa, then his confusion/awareness/discomfort regarding that are seen in that forehead kiss scene. So if Jon has become aware of his feelings for Dany, let's see how these two scenes compare?

My dudes. There is no comparison. Go watch it.

I watched both scenes with sound off, and the difference is insane. Jon looks at Sansa's lips. There's a moment's pause that's full of tension, and then his face shuts in a way, but it's a bit confused, a bit thoughtful.

Jon does not look at Dany's lips. He does not look confused, or thoughtful. This is not a romance.

Side observation- speaking of showing and telling, it's funny how we're shown Jon looking at Sansa's wolf bits, and told that Jon looks at Dany's good heart. Yes I'm talking about boobs but wolf bits and good heart is funnier. We literally see Jon look at the wolf bits twice, talk about it himself, in a completely unnecessary conversation...as opposed to being entirely dismissive of the good heart, even when someone else brings it up.

Back to the main point, one last thing I'd like to talk about is the scene where Jon actually bends the knee (not really). First, there are still no heart-eyes. Definitely not from Jon. Second, it's funny how Jon uses the exact hand-grabbing move that Sansa used on him last season, when she was trying to convince him to do something he didn't particularly wanna do (like he's now trying to do with Dany). This means that

1) he learnt that move from Sansa. He knows how effective it is XD

2) if the Jonerys hand-grab is romance, it stands to reason that the Jonsa hand-grab is romance too. I mean both the grabs are suspiciously similar.

Then, even after Dany "promises" that she'll help the North fight the WW, Jon still bends the knee. I felt both an odd sense of urgency coming from him, and an understandable hesitation. Or maybe that's just me.

Now suddenly, he becomes complimentary of her. But there's something weird about his compliments. They are completely generic. "They'll see you for what you are" and in the later episode, "you're not like the others". Wtf does that MEAN ??

Here's the thing...Jon could have paid Dany a way more specific, genuine sounding compliment after bending the knee (complete with heart eyes). I mean she did just fly over the Wall to rescue him and his men. He could have said more, something meaningful, but he didn't. He bent the knee like a house on fire (that doesn't make sense but you get what I mean I hope) and paid generic compliments. Then he pretended to sleep until she left and then sighed very loudly.

??? Romance??? WHERE????

Then the dragon pit. Heart-eyes still missing.

Then the sex scene. What do I say? Lol.

No really. There are no heart eyes even during the sex scene. Honestly, idk what that face was. Not in love for sure.

Another side note- Arya and Sansa have talks while standing in the same place where the forehead kiss scene happened (wtf do you call that place again, the bridge.??) But no heart eyes. No lingering looks. There is no incestuous gay love between them, I can say for sure. All it does is prop up the odd incestuous vibes of the Jon Sansa scene in that same place.

ANOTHER side note- goddamn but does Sansa talk about Jon a lot.

Edit: I'm sure most of this stuff has already been discussed in other metas. My purpose here is only to put down my first thoughts after watching the season.

#jonsa meta #jonsa #political jon #pol!jon #dark dany

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phoebehalliwell · 3 years

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on the subject of crackships.

in a prue lives, phoebeleo piperkyle pruecole paigeandy au (in which paige meets them in s1) how do u see it playing out and ALSO. do u see them all having kids still. this is so random i am so sorry (also i don't mean they have to be set from the get go and never get w anyone else but these would hypothetically be endgame)

i mean with phoebeleo like hard yes like in s2 when they're watching the baby at the end everyone's like phoebe ik you're gonna be a great mom you're gonna have like a million and one kids like mark my words and phoebe's real smitten about it like wow u really think you : ) i'd like to. guess i should probably find a guy first tho huh. but if that guy's already there bc it's leo and he's been here since season one i think they are easily first to have kids and first to get a full power of three the other three is definitely like another can of worms bc like.

okay so for paigeandy obvi we're starting andy's an old childhood friend of the halliwell's for the sake of cleanliness did not date any of them (if we're going messy tho dated prue hooked up once or twice with phoebe (not while dating prue, but neither of them ever mentioned it around prue bc well. yikes.) And piper had a major crush on andy for like. a decade. from ages 13 to 23) and he's a cop and does. stuff idk helps people and this lands him frequently in bed with social services which is. consistently. a pain in the ass. and he doesn't try to hold it against them bc they're clearly understaffed underpaid there's a lot to do but um jesus. and everyone in the precinct Hates having to go over there to do stuff bc you're just standing in the lobby drinking bad coffee for fifty minutes before you can even get a word in with the work and unlucky andy he drew the short straw ends up at social services and who should he meet there if not this gorgeous but really scatterbrained berkeley grad with a mouth like a sailor and a heart of gold and now um there's no need to draw straws at the station because andy straight up volunteers to go to social services just to see paige which she notices of course because like. were you jinxed or something? cursed? i've never known someone to draw the short straw so many times. and andy's like no i just um. like being hands on with my work i don't like leaving up to some dumb rookie with bad luck and paige is like oh don't worry i promise it is still being left to some dumb rookie with bad luck i mean i am right here blah blah blah banter conversation hint at a tragic backstory give it half a season and then it's official bf/gf shit and as far as charmed goes it's a prophecy about four sisters and the halliwells are like phew. dodged a bullet there lmao. until they do something only charmed ones could do and they're like Wait. Fuck. Is There A Fourth Sister Out There? so they find paige within the first hmm ten episodes or so.

so since we have both s1 phoebeleo and paigeandy i'd say they'd be on the fastest track but i feel like paige does have a lot more issues when it comes to getting married and having kids than phoebe does regardless i think by s4 they're married on track to have kids with pruecole we're doing the s3 introduction and the enemies to lovers arc we seal that with either a wedding at the very end of s4 or at the very beginning of s5 however kids is like. like they both want kids but prue has daddy issues and cole has mommy issues not to mention the charmed one/demon hybrid so they need to do some soul searching on that one. prue's probably pregnant by the end of s5 and has her baby halfway thru s6. paige may or may not have had kids at this point if they did they were kind of a whoopsies baby but she and andy r embracing it with open arms.

piperkyle imo is peak in a divorce/widower era it's been pitched like piperkyle au where he's not fucking insane piperkyle au where she's not brokenhearted piperkyle au where they're both normal happy people who then meet but like. nah. the appeal of them to me really is being the broken fucked up human being and feeling like you're kinda just gonna stay broken and fucked up bc you had your shot and you blew it so now you're here get used to it and then to have someone to meet someone who sees you so genuinely as you are that at first it's disgusting leave me alone i hate you but out of that just honest sight grows familiarity and comfort and before you even realized it happened love and jfc i'm in love with them???? but you realize that you're always happier when they're around you want to stay by their side and you don't even have to wonder if they feel the same because you just know they do because you Know each other and you don't have to wait for them to turn and run once they see who you really are because they know who you are they've known from the start saw the ugly the broken and vile and looked past that and saw the beauty and genuine love underneath like 🗣‼🗣‼🗣‼🗣‼. piperkyle consistently makes me insane. So. in order to hit this. we're bringing in dan. that's right, from season two to six (maybe just five but i'd like to have the pruecole arc wrapped up in a nice bow by the time we open up the next enemies to lovers) piper and dan give a relationship the old college try going from the honeymoon phase to the cringe failmarriage stage until it's eventually just time to call it quits like you literally can't move forward. so because of the delayed start piperkyle would def be the last to have kids but because this is a long slowburn full of character development and just like. vulnerable bonding moments i think that once they go official as a couple wedding and kids are not far off on the horizon i think if we close out a season (a hypothetical 9 or 10) with them getting together for the first time then we gotta burn some miles on the freak out denial stage because i always think that's funny that'll last half a season? maybe a third. and then by the end of the season we're looking at a wedding. by the end of the following season they def have a kid

superlatives!

most fashionable couple: pruecole

most likely to name their kids after dead relatives: piperkyle

most likely to break p tradition: paigeandy

most chill about dating a charmed one: phoebeleo (andy kyle & cole would all be way too willing to throw themselves into danger, leo trusts phoebe's foresight and knows when he needs to sit on the sidelines. it is a lesson all the other men still struggle with)

bonus round!

best bromance: 1st place: leoandy 2nd place: leocole 3rd place: colekyle

#charmed #prue x cole #piper x kyle #phoebe x leo #paige x andy #also never apologize for sending me dumb crackship things i fuckin love them!!#💌

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mrs-nate-humphrey · 3 years

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I am curious: what are your favorite scenes from your main ships (date, dair, derena...)?

scenes involving milo don't count, sorry!

for me, it's really not just scenes, but body language & just in general, how they are with each other, you know? dan and serena grin at each other and hug SO much, you can tell that being around each other in s1 made them both so happy, and even after that glow fades the way they look for comfort in each other... top level stuff. the way blair looks at dan... we never see her as radiant at any other point. she was not looking at anyone else like this. and gosh, dan and nate. they're both so comfortable around each other that there's absolutely nothing weird about like. discussing that one ex girlfriend whom they both share AND both were in love with. there is literally no other duo who trusts/enjoys each other's company so much that they're comfortable in a love triangle. (probably because they're more in love with each other than with the girl, but that is not the point. or is it?)

anyway, more specific answers. under the cut. this is one of the longest answers i've ever written on this blog possibly but you KNEW that would happen when you sent this ask, didn't you? (affectionate)

derena: i tagged one of my ds reblogs as 'the grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one' and like. look at them! this hug from 1x10 kills me in the best way. they are both the literal embodiment of :D when they see each other! i love 1x10 as a whole moment, their entire thing at cotillion is so sweet and they're both so happy. the fact that he is talking about his chemistry teacher during this kiss in 1x07. that bit at the end of 1x05 when they talk about their siblings (being there for their sibling because of fallible parents being a derena parallel makes me simultaneously really sad and really soft, tbh). 1x05 gives me SO MUCH SECONDHAND EMBARRASSMENT but the way they walk off together arms around each other does something to me - these are two people who are still getting to know each other but who really like what they see, and who trust each other and. are just having a good time together! back when derena was my OTP, the 1x11 "your story's about me?" was absolutely a fave, too, and i still adore it, albeit in a different, more nostalgic way. i like a dan who writes cute stories about serena. no empty shell sabrina van skoneker bullshit. she is so much like you, daniel! you'd be shattered if she did this to you. don't do this to her. tbh, most derena moments from s1 are just A+ romance. the bit in 2x02 in the jitney is so funny, they're SO bad at being exes. the bit in... 3x03 i think?? i don't remember... on the contrary. when they're talking about dan's fling w/ georgina and serena's relationship with carter, the ease with which they talk and how happy/supportive they are of each other's new relationships... yeah. love to see it.

i also really like any instance of them having honest/open conversations. 1x13, talking about how serena is concerned about blair. 1x08, serena talking to dan about feeling jealous of vanessa. this bit from the touch of eva or whatever that episode is. 4x04 i think. this is the conversation everyone is trying to get dan to have and he's avoiding EVERYONE else. derena interactions in 3x21 (can't find a gif right now) - the fact that dan is with serena when her dad abandons them, the fact that he goes all the way there with her. 2x07, "i'm really glad you're nate's friend. he really needs someone like you right now" (though i'm cheating, that's technically a d/n moment too klhdflkgf). there's a bit in s4 where he's advising her against having an affair w/ colin, i don't remember the ep number, but the way he takes her side so easily and naturally and puts due blame/responsibility solely on her professor... yeah. 4x10 i think this ep is?? idk. but like my tags say, im sentimental about this moment because while what dan was doing was irresponsible, sneaking her out of the ostroff, he was the only person in this episode who was actually talking to her and listening to her and taking her seriously. nobody else was doing that!!

i probably have more moments i'm not remembering, but we're only 1/3 into this answer and LOOK AT THE WORDS, good lord, i'm sorry.

dair: my favourite dair episode is hands down despicable b (5x21) which i have heard is an uncommon answer. i just love the conflict resolution of it all, okay!!! 1x04 & 2x08 are like. standard answers any dair shipper will give, and i'm no different. i love dan being able to give blair advice and blair actually taking his advice even though they're not friends yet!!! be right back, yelling at the intimacy of it all!! 5x16, with their getting together (this little kiss and dan being so startled by it), blair admitting a flaw she genuinely does have and dan saying it's not awful because it's her, which is just. romance at its finest. those vows, good lord. 5x18.... they're having fun! blair showing up at the loft in lingerie for dan... the delight on her face.... (i know this moment blows up in their face but when she's there she looks so happy and proud of herself and this was like THE moment when i was like. oh. dair is really the heart of this garbage show huh).

i think for me, the thing that really sells dan & blair together is the serena of it all. both of them love serena more fiercely than anyone else, and that is what brings them together. (fwiw i definitely think nate loved serena this much and this deeply, too; the writers just wanted to pop the serenate balloon, which even i think was extremely unnecessary and ooc.) but (& i have so much meta about this) their relationship grows beyond serena. their entire s4 arc is SO good. i love how comfortable around each other they are, in such an adult way, in the sense of like. they both bring so much stability to each other? morgan tagged this edit "the marrieds" and like. yeah. b offers to help him shave. they're having breakfast & reading the paper together.

all the love declarations we got that weren't a simple 'i love you.' be your charming wonderful self (how could she not love you/ tell me what would make you happy, dan) i told chuck he doesn't have my heart anymore (you spent your life earning the keys to set you free when you were free all along!!!!) dan's pep talk to blair in 5x21 (already linked a gifset earlier, here's another one if you want i guess). there's definitely more... but honestly, the way the dair arc was executed was so good - while i do have my complaints, i also think keeping those aside, it was SO close to perfect. i love dan & blair's banter and gradually becoming closer and closer and closer. it felt very organic and real and GOSH. the way penn & leighton looked at each other while playing dan and blair...... it's just SO MUCH.

date: this is the hardest, because it's. *screams*. maybe you saw me losing my mind over those 2 seconds of nate handing dan a waffle? i love almost every scene with these two, even the hellish s6 breakup scene. my favourite episode for d/n (& also favourite gg episode in general) is 2x06 - i love the homoerotic subtext of it all. nate pretending to be dan because dan's name is the first name that came to his head. dan flirting w/ nate while tied to that thing, in his underwear. them becoming friends. and 2x07 as a follow-up to that! dan getting nate to live in the loft with the humphreys for a while. i am so soft.

4x09 is a terrible episode in general, especially for serena my beloved, but the d/n moments in that one? off the CHARTS. this weird overly macho flirting, in some ways THE most iconic d/n line. this entire finish each other's sentences nonsense. someone (i think it was ana but im not sure?) compared the energy of those scenes i just linked to the book blairenate love triangle resolution, blairena choosing each other over nate in the books, date choosing each other over serena in the show (if only! RIP.) after the saints & sinners ball, this cute little moment of 'youre the only one who understands me. please tell me they went home together. i mean. how could they not have.

3x07, them watching vampire porn together. a tag i used on ao3 (& also on here, once) is 'nate brings out the himbo in dan'. here is a prime example. 'is she levitating?' i don't fucking know, dan, what do you think?? (i was telling my partner that that's what i love abt dair vs date. around blair dan is an intellectual, a librarian, an art historian, a museum curator. around nate it's like dan is competing to be #1 himbo on the show. can my girlfriend actually fly? i don't know, dan. i can't believe you're seriously asking such a question.)

3x12 pep talk. (sorry about the shitty quality!) essentially nate telling dan that he (dan) is hot and that he shouldn't talk himself down so much.

dan making nate gay in his book. you know. his book from which blair found out he was in love with her. nads (who i will not tag in this billion word long gushy meta, because i value her sanity) once called inside "wish fulfilment' and. i mean. yeah

nate checking dan out at the derena wedding continues to be hilarious. hilarious in the same way as dan sexually fantasising about nate. canon really went 'let's give ivy some special easter eggs' and i appreciate them a lot!

i love the way they are around each other - so quietly attuned to each other. i showed my sister my date!husbands gifset, and she was like. yeah they're so married. and it's just stuff like how dan looks for nate over his shoulder, it's not even an active action, it's as easy and natural and intuitive as breathing, checking to see if nate is still there.

oh, that wasn't as hard as it could've been! okay. cool. im SURE there's more things i could scream about, because it's DN, the fact that they're non-canon makes me THAT much fiercer about them than dair/derena, to be honest. so many dots to connect!! anyway.

#meta #derena #dair #date #anon #this is SUCH a gushy essay but like. what did you expect #how else could i have answered this #this took. an embarrassingly long amount of time #but i had SO much fun so #citations for my ships #don't mind me *whistles under my breath*

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freddieslater · 3 years

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it’s time for the dreaded s6 finale emotions

*strong regret in projecting onto ryan as much as i do because this episode h u r t s*

tyler being the one to invite ryan along?? g a e

“can’t send a man to his doom without getting drunk first” he’s trying so hard to fit in. poor bastard. and not calling the others out for excluding him? you can just tell he’s trying so hard not to ruin it for everyone, and nobody even gives a shit. and then of course he eventually snaps, he’s just spent over an hour having to watch everyone have a great time and forget about him, and then alex suddenly expects him to have bought mike a gift, and they fucking tell him to stop being so selfish and god those fucking assholes

god the conversation where may-li tells charlie about her grandad. it’s so beautifully acted, emily burnett sells the denial perfectly, it just,, ow

this episode is hard to watch when you have really strong empathy and project onto both ryan and charlie. h e l p

wow charlie really just delivered a baby in a car in the middle of the woods huh. i keep forgetting how absolutely badass that is

you know what absolutely kills me is the vague suicide subtext to ryan running away. take that goddamn phone conversation out of context and that’s what it is and that’s the worst part of all of this. and chloe saying that he’s left a note and that “i think he’s really gone for good”. o u c h

the fact that NOBODY EVEN NOTICES RYAN’S GONE EXCEPT MIKE AND CHLOE. even tyler doesn’t fucking notice. and then everyone cares more that mike’s gone to find him than that ryan even left in the first place. but we’re not meant to think about that because tracy’s here and everything’s absolutely fine right. this episode is murdering me can you tell

lily complaining about men on that facebook post. bit fruity of her, i must say *‘a day in the past’ flashbacks*

i havent watched my mum tracy beaker yet but i really need answers on how it fits timeline-wise into the tsotb/tbr/tdg canon

the fact that chloe isn’t even wrong when she says everyone would hate ryan even more if they found out mike isn’t there ‘because of him’ (read: because he quite literally had a breakdown and ran away and mike, being the only decent person in this goddamn show, went after him)

ah yes tracy, care worker of the year, really just said ‘your problems don’t fucking matter, forget that anything’s wrong because mike is getting married’. i love tracy but wow that is not the thing you say in this circumstance and the only reason it worked was because he felt bad about the cake and whatnot

this episode has such an all over the place tone. they really just went from mike freaking out to fiona figuring out he’s gone to a damn slo-mo shot of tracy and mike on a bike while ryan sprints behind them.

oh my god i forgot bailey was in this episode!! i hate him (affectionate)

this goddamn episode is so full of emotions i almost threw up oops. anyway it absolutely kills me that ryan looks like he’s about to cry pretty much the entire time. that poor kid. and then chloe really just pulls a tee and apparently loses all empathy towards him huh. love chloe but wow

i don’t think we get a chance to read what ryan wrote in that note? but i kinda wish we did. could’ve given some extra insight into everything

i have no idea if any of this is coherent, or how much of it is an actual analysis and how much is me projecting but oh well, this episode(s) is a fucking emotional trainwreck, what can you do

Oh god. I'm not prepared.

*valid regret to have, that sad queer kid with anger issues and insecurities experience hurts real bad*

Yes!! Once again proving that Tyler is the only one in the DG who actually cared about Ryan and wanted to be around him. He was pissed at Alex for not inviting Ryan like he was initally supposed to, and then took it upon himself to make Ryan feel included anyway.

That scene really pisses me off, because Alex really is going after him. You can tell, he won't let Ryan make a single joke without trying to be snarky about it, and then he purposefully tries to humiliate Ryan because he knows that Ryan couldn't possibly have known to bring a gift.

Oh yeah, I can barely ever rewatch the first part of the wedding for all of these reasons, but especially for Charlie finding out about her grandad. Emily really is way too good of an actor, that's why it's so painful.

I relate way too much to the strong empathy and projection, that shit hurts so bad.

Yeah!! Charlie did that!! Honestly, credit to her because I would not have been as calm as she was on a normal day if I had to deliver a baby in a car in the middle of nowhere, never mind after everything she had been through that day.

Okay, so you found a way to make Ryan's whole storyline of those episodes hurt way more than it already did. Thanks for that. But you are right, it does have that vague subtext to it. If this wasn't a children's show, I would've actually been worried that's where they were going to go with his storyline.

It does suck that nobody really noticed or cared that Ryan wasn't there. I wish even Tyler had shown a bit more concern, but I suppose they've only got enough time in an episode for so much.

That was definitely one of Lily's fruitiest moments, and that's saying a lot because of the aforementioned "a day in the past" flashbacks. Honestly, all of her scenes with Carmen and some with Tee are always fruity, there's nothing else to it.

Okay, so, I can kind of answer that one. My Mum Tracy Beaker definitely carries on from The Story of Tracy Beaker since it involves clips of it when Tracy sees Justine. However, it's only really connected to tbr/tdg canon through vague hints. Like, Tracy has a published book called "Who Cares?" and there's a mention of her being an ex careworker, and she wears a "T" necklace but it's slightly different from the one that she wears in the wedding episode. So, we know there are subtle references to TBR through these background details that are really just glossed over. There is a weird little moment when Tracy's daughter tells Justine that Tracy wrote a book, but Justine should already know that considering it was a big part of their reunion in Tracy Beaker Returns. At best, we can at least assume that everything that happened in TBR is canon for My Mum Tracy Beaker. I feel like, if we want to be able to make the timeline for the wedding add up with My Mum Tracy Beaker, we'd have to assume that Tracy hadn't already had Jess during the wedding. Since the wedding takes place around 2018, and Jess is 10, My Mum Tracy Beaker would have to be set in 2028 at the very least, and that would have to mean that Tracy had Jess the same year as the wedding. Either that, or she did already have Jess but just... never mentioned her because she was staying with Cam.

It really does kill me that Chloe was right about that, because you'd think at least some of them would have some sort of sympathy for Ryan. I wish Tyler did. Honestly, he had a genuine breakdown and ran away, and no one cared except Mike. Great family they are.

Yeah, that was not Tracy's best moment, but... that's just Tracy. She doesn't think, she acts on what she believes to be the best solution in that very moment. She was never exactly an aware winning care worker in all fairness skjdashd but Ryan definitely needed to hear something other than that.

I could barely be sad or stress during that episode specifically because of how chaotic it was, and ESPECIALLY because of that slow-mo that had no right being so damn hilarious.

SHFKDASJDLK "I hate him (affectionate)" well at least I'm glad the (affectionate) is there lmao. But I was screaming when I realized Baily (and Liam) were there, I was so happy!!

Oh yeah, Ryan looked so upset, he was absolutely blaming himself so badly. There was no need for Chloe to come in there "wish you'd run away for real" like fuck off. I love her. But fuck off.

I don't recall actually seeing the contents of the note now that you mention it.

Yeah, don't worry, I'm not sure most of my reply to it is coherent either. But those are episodes are some of the most fun to analyse because Drama and Angst.

#ds-umbrella-manufacturing-co #ask away earthlings!#tdg #the dumping ground #long post #ryan reeves #tyler x ryan #alex walker #charlie morris #lily kettle #my mum tracy beaker #tracy beaker returns #tracy beaker #bailey wharton

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intothewickedwood · 3 years

Text

Once Upon A Time Rewatch: 6x09 Changelings

Okay, another episode I have hardly any memory of. Oh! Is it a Rumbelle flashback? I feel like Gideon is in this one. It’s so weird not having memorised or deeply analysed s6. I’ve rewatched and analysed other seasons so many times but I’ve probably seen this season twice at most. I hate not remembering things. I must know everything!!

Are the fairies still nuns, as Whale asked in s2? You would have thought Christianity and magic wouldn’t mix but maybe they found a way.

Okay! I’m getting a strong sense my girl Belle is about to do something batsh*t! I love it when she does things completely bananas! 

Belle: “He’s trying to scare me so I’ll go back to him.” Yep. Generally, not a good technique for getting someone back.

Okay, but how on earth does Belle know the baby is a boy???

There’s a manual on defeating the Dark One? Gideon must have somehow placed that there. 

Ugggh. Finding it really difficult to concentrate here because here I am watching a show about magic, which is completely fiction while my mum is on the phone with my Nanna talking about fantastical witchcraft and how everyone is casting curses on them as though its real. I am going to scream. 

It’s giddy up Gideon!

It must be weird seeing your child all grown up before it’s born. 

I forget, is this a genuine vision of Gideon who’s trying to help or are the Black Fairy or Gideon manipulating Belle? 

Did he cut his own fate?

Ooh! Call back to s1! I’m guessing Snow doesn’t know Sidney killed her father. Or she probably does due to the Agrabahn vipers.

Don’t you touch Zelena, Split Queen istg!!

Why doesn’t Zelena even fight Split Queen?! Maybe she thinks she’ll just absorb her magic like Hyde did, which I’m not entirely sure if she possesses that power. But Zelena could have taken her! I don’t know why they didn’t show Zelena’s true magic potential this season.

Good! Thanks Reggie! 

Squid ink does not last long.

Oh my God! Leave Belle alone! 

Bell speaks fairy language?

Oh! He knew she was going to translate it so used that to his advantage by tricking her into it! Clever!

Oh. He didn’t use the magic to speed up her pregnancy?

Stop being a zingwhipper, Regina! Hades killed Robin.

Zelena: “you’ve been forgiven. You’ve grown. You’ve changed.” Regina: “You’re not me.” No, you’re much worse, Regina! I can’t with this hypocrisy, again. You’ve slaughtered villages upon villages with children. What makes you so special that you’re worthy of forgiveness but someone who hasn’t even committed half the murders you have isn’t?? And worthy of your forgiveness no less?! You’d think Regina would be more forgiving given the heinous crimes she’s committed but I guess not if her revenge on a ten-year-old is anything to go by. I’m not saying any of them are worthy of forgiveness or not but if we’re gonna forgive a child mass murderer we might as well forgive everyone else. 

Aladdin! If Ouat in Wonderland is anything to go by, becoming a genie is a huge sacrifice!

Blue! You got big for no reason! Why does she keep doing that this season? It goes against her abhorrence at Tinker Bell doing that.

Blue: “no one knows exactly (why the Black Fairy turned evil).” Another lie! Blue was literally there when it happened!

This must have been one of the only times Belle got out of the castle during her stay of a few months there.

Emma is so checked out this season and the last. Girl needs some coca cola or something.

Who sped up Belle’s pregnancy?!

Okay, but I am so attracted to the black fairy.

Also, she gives me Bellatrix Lestrange vibes.

You can tell she cares for Rumple by the way she looks at him. I’m not sure why she’s pretending that she doesn’t. Maybe I’ve forgotten something.

No need to hurt him!

I remember those few episodes where I thought Rumple was half-fairy and Henry was an eighth fairy lmao!

Well, at least Emma was kind enough to be there for Belle. God knows not a damn soul else looks out for her.

“Can you push me on the swing, mummy?” What? Loooool!

Did Belle just freaking black out during childbirth in order to see Gideon? She must have. When I have kids, I bet I’ll just straight up blackout during the first 5 minutes of labour. So many times I’ve had stomachache I’ve ended up unconscious on the bathroom floor lmao. I just can’t handle it! 

Gideon: “You know what you must do.” Belle: “Go into complete batsh*t insane mode again?” Gideon: “You know it!”

Belle, why are you listening to a vision that is probably the product of being blackout-drugged up to your eyeballs on painkillers??!

The stupid flipping book lol. Mustn't forget the book!

Belle, honey, this is a little extreme. I get you wanna keep him safe from Rumple but it’s not worth sending him to live in the freaking clouds! Whatever Rumple is going to do, which likely isn’t to hurt his son, is not worth leaving your baby to the fairies!

And you’re trusting him with Blue of all people?! She probably wanted this to happen!

Gideon means destroyer. I knew he was going to be a villain from the moment she named him that.

Jesus, she is obsessed with that book. I mean, her mum died trying to save some books so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s like everything she does is to be like the characters in that book but, like, to a detrimental effect!

“Okay, Giddy Up, look after Mummy’s book and don’t damage it or get food marks on it! Byeeeeee!”

That was absolutely bananas, Belle!

I do feel for Rumple here. Lost another son. 

Did he speed up her pregnancy?

Belle could have at least have gone with Gideon, no?

These parents are supposed to be Jack and Jill. Aren’t Jack and Jill meant to be brother and sister?! 

Oh! Split Queen sped up the pregnancy! 

Oh God, he has to find his son again! Oh no! 

Emma, are you okay? You seem tired to the point of being a different character who has possessed Emma’s body since season 5!! I miss s1-4 Emma so bad.

Destroy the sword, guys! 

#ouat 6x09 #6x09 changelings #ouat #once upon a time #belle french #ouat gideon #gideon gold #ouat rewatch #ouat rewatch 2019

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samsoleil · 3 years

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9 and 10?

ask game

V I am sending the most fond vibes in your direction I hope they make it there okay!!

10. Your favourite season and why.

Honestly? Either S2 or S11.

Season 2: Sam has psychic powers and Dean is terrified that his brother might actually be bad, but is still ride or die for him. This is where we can see their relationship flourish without the search for John hanging over their heads. But y'know what does hang over their heads? John telling Dean he'll either have to save Sam or kill him, and Sam who is desperate to be saved and willing to be killed. And then!! when Sam dies!!! Dean saves him in the worst possible way!!!! Also, it's visually gorgeous. You've got the high contrast vibes from S1 but slightly less desaturated and you've still got the grainy film texture. An excellent time.

Season 11: Listen. I still think it should have been Chuck sending Sam visions. And I don't particularly care for the B plot. But Sam and Dean peak in this season for the first time since pre-s4 and it was amazing. It's the immediate aftermath of Sam literally unleashing "a force on the world that could destroy it" to save Dean. Codependency at its peak. And in two mid-season episodes they absolutely nail the S2 energy. I mean, establishing beyond any doubt that Dean loves Sam? And then making him think Sam is dead in the very next episode? Where Sam is also the dictionary definition of BAMF? Not to mention, Sam is just. so understanding of Dean and his messy feelings about Amara. Love that for them.

9. What episodes best encapsulates the brother’s relationship? Does this change throughout the series? Doesn’t have to be the best episode btw.

To answer the second question, the brother’s relationship very obviously changes throughout the show. It’s obviously very codependent from the get go (especially from Sam’s perspective! Literally unendurable), and it varies in toxicity. Some seasons they are very soft! Some seasons I want to shout at Sam to run for the hills and never return. And then there are some episodes in seasons where their relationship is literally awful that are wonderfully tender (like 08x21 when Dean says “You gotta let me take care of you, man”).

Imo, S1-3 are peak brothers. S4/5 are excellent to watch but not the most tender. S6 is on thin fucking ice. S7-10 are, generally speaking, when I would absolutely be willing to kill a man (Dean), but are still SO compelling because these crazy kids are devoted and have no moral boundaries when it comes to the other. S11 is a return to the good stuff! I haven’t seen the seasons after that but from what I have seen, Sam becomes a Dean apologist and Dean just gets worse. But they’re still codependent, so that’s fine. “You were gonna leave and you weren’t even going to tell me?” and “What about me? Would you trade me?” are baller lines. Sam is a grown man but he’s out here saving the world by being Dean’s baby brother. Iconic of them.

OKAY so. First question. I originally had several episodes per season but I have to limit it to 2, this is going to be too long otherwise. Also, as you well know, I've only watched up to 12x06, so I won't include S12 here.

Episodes (and explanations) under the cut!

Obviously, both 01x01 Pilot and 15x20 Carry On. Literally the perfect bookends for this show. I don’t need to elaborate.

01x05 Bloody Mary - Has the moment where Dean actually has an emotional conversation with his brother, because he’s switched on to Sam’s emotional needs. He was willing to let Sam blame him for Jess’ death so that Sam didn’t blame himself! And near the end it has the iconic line "You're my brother and I'd die for you." Dean, right? No! It was Sam!! Anyone with any sort of reservations about whether Sam cared about Dean in early S1 can refer to this episode. It’s episode 5!! of the whole show!! and it has that line!!

01x11 Faith - Sam has absolutely no regrets about someone dying to save Dean's life. In retrospect, this episode says a lot about how much Sam loves Dean.

02x01 In My Time of Dying - Sam can sense that Dean is there, either through psychic powers or because they are soulmates. Both are good. Also, Dean is told that he may have to kill Sam, which influences their dynamic for the rest of the show <33

02x21 All Hell Breaks Loose Part 1 - Dean, on his knees in the mud, telling Sam's corpse that it'll be okay and screaming his name. That is all. Also, after thoroughly chewing out a victim earlier in the season for selling his soul to save a loved one, Dean sells his soul to save a loved one.

03x08 A Very Supernatural Christmas - Sam decorated a Christmas tree with pine air fresheners to give Dean a Christmas. Obsessed.

03x11 Mystery Spot - Dean dies repeatedly, then dies for good for about 6 months, and Sam becomes a ruthless hunter in order to bring him back. Dean spends longer dead in this episode than he actually does at the end of S4.

04x14 Sex and Violence - Dean's siren is literally just a version of Sam that is devoted to Dean and would do anything he says.

04x22 Lucifer Rising - Bobby coming for Dean's life. The VOICEMAIL!! Dean acting as though them being family is a cure-all and saying he'll beat Sam up, but also apologising. I'll take it. And then, of course, the voicemail Sam hears, which is more or less what Dean said in 04x04, and that being what tips him over the edge. The edge, of course, being killing Lilith to avenge Dean’s death, which has been his quest since the end of S3. Excellent.

05x16 Dark Side of the Moon - Ohoho. This episode. You know why this episode is here.

05x22 Swan Song - Same as the above! Dean who doesn't have a plan, just doesn't want his little brother to die alone. Sam, who fights off the devil himself and (essentially) kills himself to save his brother and the car they call their home. That memory sequence, for me, gave Sam the power not to save the world, but to save his brother. The world was just a bonus.

06x11 Appointment in Samara - "Dean doesn't care about me, he just cares about his little brother, Sammy, burning in hell. He'll kill me to get that other guy back." Dean's anger at himself for screwing up and forfeiting Sam's soul was. a lot. Also, Sam begging for his life and Dean just continuing anyway? Horrific. But very testament to their relationship at this point. Dean wants Sammy back and he WILL kill this other guy to do it.

06x22 The Man Who Knew Too Much - Sam being right about the consequences of having his soul put back in. And "You know me. You know why. I'm not leaving my brother alone out there."

07x03 The Girl Next Door - I was tossing up between this and 07x02 but. this has some flashbacks to past Sam!! Unfortunately, it also has Dean punching Sam for using the Impala, the car they both rely on to get around. And Dean murdering Sam's childhood friend for killing rapists. This isn’t an episode that makes you think “Awh, they’re codependent!”, it’s an episode that makes you send Sam vibes screaming at him to get out.

07x14 Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie - Ever think that maybe Sam fears clowns because he associates them with being abandoned? Also, nostalgia vs reality.

08x09 Citizen Fang - The voicemail from S4 is still hanging over our heads. Dean asking “Does that sound like the Benny we know?” and Sam replying “I don’t know Benny.” Dean keeping Benny away from Sam because Sam is apparently the one who will kill monsters with no nuance or remorse. But this episode is on the list specifically because of how pivotal the line "Yes, I do – too well. In fact, every relationship I have ever had has gone to crap at some point. But the one thing I can say about Benny – he has never let me down." is in absolutely wrecking Sam's mental health down the road!

08x23 Sacrifice - For obvious reasons! “You know what I confessed in there? What my greatest sin was? It was how many times I let you down!” and then Dean’s speech of blatant lies. It sounded good, though. Dean really is that devoted, but unfortunately he has amnesia.

09x01 I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here - Autonomy violation. This is what advanced care directives are for. Dean being so dependent on Sam that he would violate his autonomy and trick him into consenting to possession. Dean will do anything to keep Sam alive, including destroy Sam.

09x16 Blade Runners - The parallels between Colette and Sam are unbearable. “Drop the blade.” Also, Dean becomes SO feral when Sam’s cheek gets cut.

10x19 Book of the Damned - Sam’s speech! “But I can’t do it without my brother. I don’t want to do it without my brother. And if he’s gone, then I don’t….”

10x24 Brother's Keeper - Ahahahahaaa. Sam kneeling down in front of Dean and letting him kill him, if he wants. Dean not doing so. Please do not emulate this relationship in your real human lives.

11x04 Baby - Obvious reasons. Also, the perfect example of how these two communicate. Dean clearly states his opinion so that Sam has something to base his arguments around, and then Sam provides his perspective. That meta about how Dean and Sam communicate and how Sam is the major decision maker opened my eyes. Impeccable takes.

11x16 Safe House - The thing Dean loves being Sam (and Sam being genuinely relieved that it was!!). Sam propping Dean’s sleeping body against the fridge while saying “I got you! Stay with me.” Him cradling Dean in his arms and patting his head and Dean being SO confused but not fighting it.

11x17 Red Meat - Okay, I lied about the 2 per season thing, I just needed all three of these episodes. They are too good to not include. Dean joking to hide how scared he is for Sam? Being willing to let all three of them die just because he thinks Sam is dead? Attempting/committing suicide to try to bring him back? Sam fighting through immense pain to get back to his brother? This episode is so good. They are absolute lunatics (affectionate).

#emblian #ask game #answered #spn #V I LOVE YOU!!#kael.txt

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easilydistractedbyfanfic · 4 years

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I really hated the Raven/Nikki scene in last night's ep, made Raven come across as cowardly and weak when shes supposed to be one of the strongest characters in the show. What are your thoughts on it?

Where to start, my fellow Raven-loving pal, WHERE TO START?!!? 😒 I touched on this briefly somewhere today - msgs, twitter, discord? I don’t even remember, lol. Maybe all three, honestly, because I didn’t like aspects of this scene either. So I’ll consider this a fresh rant! And as you well know, I’ve got a lot to say!

I actually like the Raven/Nikki storyline even though I don’t think they’re handling it as well as they should. It makes sense that Raven is upset, sad & guilty about Hatch and the other miners dying, and it makes sense that Nikki is very angry and out for revenge, and it COULD make sense that Raven is afraid to die in s7 (as yet another parallel to Murphy and not specifically in a romantic way either; their storylines genuinely mirror each other a lot) - HOWEVER. The show has not ever done the work to set Raven up as a supposed “cowardly” character, and they established nothing in s7 up to this point to suggest that Raven is scared to die, other than what we might read into (or didn’t) with her actions in 7x03.

I did a meta on it at the time because I was frustrated with what I considered OOC behavior with Raven in 7x03 - both locking Murphy in the room as well as how a lot of fandom was interpreting the scene AND how I think they had her phrase a few things. We know from the ep that she was the only person who had complete information - she knew the reactor was broken & what it needed to be fixed, she knew that when Wonkru was asked to help that no one stepped up - AND she witnessed that when they were told the truth (about Madi) that they fell apart. She knew that Indra had argued not to tell the truth for those exact concerns.

So Raven gets desperate for assistance & approaches the miners for their expertise - literally watching them in-fighting as she walks up to them - she knows that they may not be willing to help her out of the kindness of their hearts in a potentially dangerous scenario. She makes the decision to lie. We know THIS much is true - Raven decides to lie to the miners. What we must INFER as viewers is HOW MUCH DID SHE LIE and what were her intentions? In the ep, Raven literally makes a statement that she DID NOT KNOW the radiation would be that bad. She says this, and she looks harried/stricken about it. In addition, we know that Raven understands (bc she’s logical & a genius) that the miners may be more familiar with the equipment/techniques used to repair these kinds of things, therefore lessening the time it would take to fix the problem. We know that Raven is watching the monitors and that the other person in the room with experience, Em0ri, is too sick to continue to contribute/help/interpret what those monitors say. If we believe all these things we see in the scene and that we know about Raven (ie she’s logical & a genius & has risked her life before & never backs down from a fight), and imho we have no reason NOT to believe them, then she lied to convince them to help, yes. But she did not lie with the intention of death as the outcome. This part of the ep suggests that she expects they will all get sick but not die.

And if THAT is the case, then why would Raven expect that she would die if she went into that room after people had already been doing hard work to get it closer to being repaired? Why would she be too scared to go in? How does it make sense if she knows that if NO ONE fixes the reactor, then EVERYONE dies, including herself? How does it make sense that Raven is so scared to die in THIS scenario when every past dangerous choice on her part - some of which were much more dangerous, imho - don’t indicate that’s who she is at all?

This is why I say the writers SHOULD have done a better job writing it. A few scattered comments in s6 (basically only days/weeks prior to s7) about Marper and Shaw dying, Kane & Abby dying, about Murphy dying and his fears, about all the chances Raven has taken with her life up to now and all her near-misses - could have built up to Raven being afraid to die too. We have a neat call back to Raven relating to Nikki because Raven knows what it was like to lose Finn - Raven now being the one “responsible” for Hatch’s death and causing Nikki to feel that hurt. Add in her own desperation NOT to die and you have a deeper, more interesting problem besides Raven just wanting to save the world again (this time Sanctum if the reactor blows) - it gets more personal if Raven deliberately sacrifices others to save her own ass. And of course it mirrors what Murphy did in s6 to some extent too.

But they didn’t have her do this. They actually had her do the opposite, imho. They had Raven make a tough choice to sacrifice the few for the many, sure - but AFTER it was already too late to do anything else. Yes, it got complicated when she sent Murphy in that room as well, but that’s a tangent since he didn’t die, and arguably, her comments about him being a cockroach could imply that she fully expects him to survive it the whole time and she didn’t expect that she was doing something that would do him in.

So now 7x13 - the writers making Raven admit that she was being a coward to Nikki doesn’t have payoff. It doesn’t make sense via the evidence. It only makes sense as them writing Raven poorly as a “morality” character in s6 (oh god don’t get me started on THAT again), and then they try to make it some kind of big fall this season with this choice even though Raven has long lived in the world of gray. In addition, right after Raven “kills” the miners, she then kills a bunch more humans to save her friends in a dangerous situation in the woods that SHE SOUGHT OUT, yet she isn’t exactly going around avoiding dangerous situations out of cowardice, is she? She’s sassy on Bardo, back-talking Cadogan, holding guns on people once more like she’s not afraid to use them - basically she’s Raven, duh.

But that reactor scene? It makes sense that she is GUILTY about Hatch. But it does not make sense in any way that her character is a coward at all or in that incident because they did no setup to sell it. And in addition, they actually deliberately debased her character - or at least attempted to - by saying this about her/making her say it about herself despite the lack of evidence.

Also I gotta add - I did not like that even though Murphy, Em0ri and Madi knew how dead-set Nikki was on killing Raven, not one of them gave her a head’s up that Nikki was in the reactor area too. Like I know they had a lot going on but come ON. Once again lack of communication is the only reason something bad happens...

SO NO. NO I DID NOT LIKE IT EITHER! 🤣 I hope you’re not sorry you asked, after that long diatribe! But I *love* Raven. I *know* Raven. At this point I truly think I have written more about her than the show has. I’m sure I’ve thought more about her motivations and personality traits. So I have THOUGHTS.

#my inbox #asked and answered #the 100 s7 spoilers #raven reyes #my meta #thanks for asking as always #what do YOU think?#what didn't you like about it?#are we lining up or do you have some other thoughts?

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alwaysahiccupandastrid · 5 years

Text

Does it make anyone else angry that Blaine Anderson obviously had depression/anxiety/mental health issues but Glee glossed over it?!

The writers were so horrendous on the later season of Glee that it actually makes me steaming mad. It could have been a really strong storyline: Blaine, the Star Warbler, the seemingly confident young man, struggling deep down with depression and/or anxiety. Instead they just...wrote Blaine as this needy whiner who couldn’t go five minutes without Kurt.

It would have made perfect sense in my opinion - we knew that Blaine and his dad weren’t close, that his dad didn’t really accept the Blaine was gay, and we also know that the relationship between Blaine and Cooper wasn’t very close either because Cooper was a lot older. We also know that Blaine felt overshadowed by Cooper because Cooper was this big star, this actor who everyone seems to admire, and even Kurt thought he was attractive (which he admitted to Blaine openly). We only saw Blaine’s mom once at the wedding, and she seemed supportive enough but still...where were his family the rest of the series?

To add, Blaine has a very upsetting past: he tells Kurt that before he went to Dalton, just after he came out, he and his friend (the only other openly gay kid at school) went to a Sadie Hawkins dance, which then led to the two of them having “the living the crap” beaten out of them. It was so bad that Blaine literally transferred schools - he was too anxious to go to prom with his boyfriend who he loves because of what happened the last time he went to a dance. He seems like this guy confident in his sexuality but deep down he’s actually still very insecure and anxious because he knows that Ohio is notoriously horrendous when it comes to homophobia.

Another thing? Blaine getting distressed when he gained weight because he was comfort eating, and he was terrified that his fiancée would leave him. Him being “jealous” of Kurt and Kurt’s new fitness/body isn’t so much jealousy as insecurity because he knows and has always known that Kurt is hot stuff - he knew it before anyone else - but he’s worried that now Kurt is realizing it, he’ll leave him. He’s genuinely scared that Kurt will wake up one day and realize “I don’t love him anymore”, realize “I can do way better than Blaine”. To add, in their relationship, Blaine began as the more confident one, the one who was out and open and proud - mostly because he was at a school that had a zero tolerance policy for bullying. As soon as he left Dalton, he started being more vulnerable. Given that the relationship started with Blaine being the “mentor”, despite being younger, the fact that their relationship dynamic has shifted is difficult for Blaine. It’s not that he doesn’t like Kurt being independent or anything, it’s just that now it feels like Kurt doesn’t need him - what can Blaine offer him now? He can’t offer advice or mentorship or anything like that, he feels, and he starts to feel disgusting/ugly/fat...so he has to wonder, why is Kurt staying? How long will it be before Kurt inevitably leaves?

Don’t even get me started on Blaine cheating - S2-3 Blaine would NEVER. In fact, I still don’t think it was in character for S4-6 Blaine, in fact, but the writers wanted to break them up for drama. As for the reasons Blaine cheated, while there’s no excuse, he felt lost and unloved - his boyfriend was ignoring his phone calls, hanging up on him before he could say bye, etc., and then there’s the fact that Blaine feels lost within Glee club/school. The only reason he transferred was for Kurt, because Kurt asked. The others in Glee Club are not Blaine’s friends at this point - they were always Kurt’s friends, and Blaine tagged along as Kurt’s boyfriend. The only other Glee members he interacted with (as friends) before this was Finn and Rachel - both of whom are also gone. So Blaine is in a notoriously homophobic school, alone and feeling pressure because he’s the new leader of the club. This on top of Kurt growing farther apart from him...it’s no wonder he did something stupid that he regrets.

Of course, he even admits in S6 that after he and Kurt broke up, he got super depressed. The whole of S4, he shows signs of depression and hating himself - the self hatred is almost alarming. In 4x18, during the false alarm school shooting, he barely breathes a word after everyone shushes him. He’s worried that if he talks or makes any noise, it will be HIS fault that everyone dies. When we see him during the lockdown, he can only mouth “turn it off” when someone’s phone rings; he just sits with his knees pulled into his chest, trying not to cry or panic, sometimes hiding his face or burying it in his arms. As someone who has anxiety and has had anxiety attacks, this is definitely all too familiar behavior.

Darren Criss loved Blaine and loved the show/fanbase, and that was how the writers repaid him - with ruining his character. The writers made Blaine out to be whiny and dependent on having a boyfriend, and this plus the fact he had most songs (second only to Rachel) made the fans despise him. I saw people call him a cash cow because he had so many songs, but he was literally PAID to sing/act. It’s his job. Blame the writers if you have to blame someone. Darren Criss deserved so much better to be honest.

#glee #blaine anderson #darren criss #klaine

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bionicdragonguardian1 · 4 years

Text

Voltron Rewritten Defender (1/8)

Also known as My Almost Raging Bitch List for this Goddamn Disastrous Disappointment of a Show

I binged all 8 seasons in under a week, so believe me when I say almost nothing was forgotten between seasons/episodes and I do tend to note that.

If it’s not obvious by the title, I’m planning an entire show AU. I am extremely open to people’s opinions on what I’m currently thinking and when I finally post this I’ll be open to criticism there too. If you would like to avoid seeing anything in regards to this feel free to blacklist #voltron_rewritten_defender because that’s what I’ll be using for this whole thing.

Enjoy, I guess.

Fair warning I am a multishipper, but for this show I leaned towards Klance, so if that bothers you that’s okay, I’m not going to be bashing any other ships (mainly just Dreamworks’ forced Allurance). If you think I missed something for any other ship lemme know! If you wanna have a ship discussion that’s cool too. The only other thing I can think of is that Allura’s attitude in S8 really stuck with me to the point that she bothered me throughout the entire rewatch (I was admittedly one of the people who thought she could be very Mary Sue ish when I first watched this) so that’ll show up now and again.

If you want to look at the Google Doc for the whole show, click the link, if not you can expand this post to see Season 1. I’ll be doing these in chunks, but as some of you know I do a FicRecList on one of my other accounts here @sorcerusdragonbionics so I’m gonna be alternating between that and these for the next couple days.

If you do the Google Route it’ll have you ask me for permission, this is normal and if you request it I’ll give you commenting abilities.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t30IRJonrBFh0qvs8recf3ayGoQ0rx02y0Tg1e4NTaI/edit?usp=sharing

Key

Things I kinda wanna bitch about

Things I did genuinely enjoy and like

Rewatch Thoughts (basically what I remember from further forward and how I feel like it reflects back on earlier seasons)

Ship Talk (behold my multishipping insanity)

Things I think I’ll do in the Rewrite

Writing Notes (mainly for me or as explanation for what I’m planning)

VA and Closed Captioning Things

Other Fic Thoughts

This ended up being music commentary in S8

Season One

Problems with the Season overall:

To be honest if I hated this season I wouldn’t’ve kept watching because by the time I started S3 had just dropped

Episode 1

Here’s the deal, WHY ARE YOU SO LONG BUT SO EMPTY?!?

Yeah, nope, that’s mostly it

Fix the problem of telling instead of showing about the other Lions and remove Allura’s explanation of the Lions if possible (thank you Kross for explaining why it felt so empty- this vid is actually where I started getting the idea to actually go through with a full series AU)

DON'T RUSH THE LION INTROS

Also let the 5 introduce themselves to Allura and Coran

Also Character Drive to Complete Mission Should Be A Thing

Flesh out Paladin Personalities so that the Aris Arrival is End of Part One (making it closer to the length of E1)

Flesh out Lion intros so part 2+3 are more like full Eps without Sendak

Episode 2

75 degrees… that’s definitely in Fahrenheit, which why?

How does no one have a watch with a date on them?

“A man can be driven to do anything if a beautiful woman is just really really mean to him”

More inbetween scenes bc I can

I will accept the transformation sequence here, I’m just not going to write it

Episode 3

Please watch the use of Earth Time Slices please, because it’s confusing

I love the portrayal of PTSD in this show and I would die before I change it

Bye bye transformation sequence

Pidge’s talk with Shiro can please change

Episode 4

“I say Vol, you say Tron” will come up again if it kills me

Lance, how do you know what hotdog water and feet taste like?

I love how Coran is completely nonchalant about the fact that he’s drinking a hair tonic

Shiro, don’t bring down the mood

Goddammit Sendak, you could stay for this arc, but god I want you GONE!

Keith, having an emotion? Really?

The Pidge plot DID NOT NEED TO HAPPEN LIKE THAT!

Fight me I will change it

Or minimally change the fact that their selfish motivations are revealed to BAD and should be changed

Oh yeah, let’s not give the ONE GUY with notable homesickness a character arc around that

That moment when you realize Allura is like ‘wtf is a peanut’

Allura, don’t push it, some people don’t want to talk about it

You will have something to talk about, BIOLOGY

Decryption happens here, and next attempt to find family occurs… when?

Poor Coran, if there is anyone who was more forgotten than Lance it was him

Keith isn’t wrong, but he also doesn’t know how to say it without getting mad, which mood

Just pointing out Lance is not only smart, but selfless, tell me how he’s not the main character

My inner Shance/Klance shipper is sobbing

“Bomb fuel” mentioned here, occurs… actually it’s ok

Timelines need to be a thing!

Can I make the fight scenes more intense? Yes, I write them for my YJ Scripts. Will I? Almost definitely.

Keith with that much fire your mask should be closed because smoke inhalation is bad

Can we explain Vrepit Sa before s6?

It feels like Coran forgets that 10k years have passed under an evil empire and part of me likes it, but it hurts me

Episode 5

The Katie flashback is hurts me

I want to add Gender Identity

Can we talk about how Shiro is a nickname for Takashi Shirogane?

That’s not how an EMP works

The Coran sitting on Hunk’s shoulders with a machine gun is everything

I know the back x-ray was a joke, but I still don’t like it

Rax is an idiot, just saying

Bonding Moment!!!

Episode 6

“Intergalactic time measuring competition.”

“We had a bonding moment!”

Where is Sendak’s arm?

Fight me, Pidge’s ‘gender speech’

It will be a gender speech if it kills me

Lance, why are you acting the way you are?

“I figured” and “We were supposed to think you were a boy” ARE NOT PROPER REACTIONS!

Rolo, sometimes I want to punch you in the teeth

Lance’s boner is going to get someone killed

Lance had 4sec of logic and then Nyma brings up Keith, which ofc does him in

Let’s expand on the Komar, yeah?

Quiznack means fuck and NO ONE can tell me otherwise

Keith’s ability to fly is impressive and it’s awesome

Friendly reminder that Lance acknowledged the bonding moment

Episode 7

I LOVE the laser gun sound effects!!!

I just realized that Allura has no clue what an Acronym is

We… literally just talked about this and YOU didn’t know that Shiro, I understand the point, but seriously?

LIONS are TELEPATHIC Shiro DID NOT need to say that aloud!

I do actually like the fact that Kieth gets excited before realizing what he did

FIRE and ICE PEOPLE come on! What the hell?! You barely had to try

“Yes sir?” Keith to Shiro, what?

I love them and their cute little arguments

Left vs Right, thank you Zamber

We be lovin’ Hunay bc it’s pure as hell

Thank you Shiro for validating Hunk’s concerns

You could check a little faster, Allura

I LIVE for this scene

Was it actually Rolo?

Do they have teleporters?

Keith being weird is my favorite thing

I love good big bros who argue tradition to save their baby sis

Zarkon is a bit of a moron

THEIR LIVES ARE IN DANGER ALLURA!

They all came through different doors… how?

What if the answer was no?

I’m ok with Lance embarrassing himself when he’s cocky, some people seem to forget that

Bye transformation sequence, I explained you ONCE and that’s it

Prorock… why are you familiar?

Episode 8

I admittedly forgot that they didn’t know these things would be different

Flying fight scenes I can do, teleporting not so much

Poor Shiro he thought he had an idea and he was wrong

I love Coran’s reaction

Also NO SHIT Allura

UHHHH Pidge said that not and of the other three so how did He know?

Allura may piss me off, but I do love this speech

“Your Altean Energy”??? Coran, you’re an Altean, I’m confused.

The “Sacred Altean” thing I get, but you must be more specific cuz it makes Coran sound like he thinks he’s not a proper Altean.

Oof, angsty

Also, I know we can’t kill Allura yet, but...

I love that Hunk forgot they hadn’t formed Voltron

Bye bye transformation sequence

Ummm, they NEED to explain the Bayard Equip bc that’s… two very different things that occurred between Hunk and Keith’s Bayard Weapons

Why is this a scene? It’s not a dog. So, yeah, I’m with Keith here

Episode 9

THIS IS NOT HEALTHY ALLURA!

I just realized that this doesn’t come back until S..7? 8? Whatever, WAY too long

I can’t unhear “Training Dick”

Did they have homework on Altea?

Be still my Punk shipper heart

WHY is he SO pretty?!

Y’know, the glowing red eye is usually a bad sign

I could SO mean and hurt Keith here

That moment when you’re like 90% sure Shiro heard that somewhere

Not what haunted means Coran, but accurate

Why could Lance see Alfor for a second?

I too would like the answer to “where was the Red Lion?”

PTSD IS AMAZINGLY WRITTEN!

It’s a shame this is NEVER treated properly again

Thank you for NOT making the swimming thing a thing

You didn’t need to TRY Voltron, what the hell?!

Here’s the deal, Altea not being Obliterated-obliterated is actually a really interesting idea

Lance still wins, for the record

If she was infected in any way this wouldn’t drive me crazier than a bot on Halloween

But she’s not so this is BULL

Shallura confuses me SO much…

Ok, admittedly the scene with Allura and Alfor is beautifully heartbreaking

Episode 10

The fact that Zarkon was a close friend to Alfor should be addressed

Also Shiro calling himself “an inexperienced Pilot” hurts

Allura’s a MORON!

YES! MASSIVE ISSUE WITH YOU COMING

Nice puppetry Hunk

What happened to THIS Allura?! She’s reckless but not INSANE (or so boring I might cry)!

Is this the same Druid from Season 8? Pretty sure it’s 8… I forget which, but the one Keith fought

“Don’t walk through that door!” / Keith does/ “I think I told him” // “You are a paragon of leadership, Lance”

Hehheh I love Hunk teasing Lance about Allura

I do actually the fact that I can’t tell what size the purple container is until Keith grabs it

Heheh the Allura interacting with the Galra soldier

The computer sounds like Lance

Also Shiro had that “holy shit” moment

I HATE WRITING TELELPORTING FIGHTS

I’m 99% sure that the ONLY reason I didn’t fall into the Galra Keith rabbit hole was the fact that I binge watched

This scene confuses me… so much now that I know Shallura was apparently never going to be a thing

So confused

Episode 11

That hair flip though...

Coran, I get it, but calm down

Okay, but Keith has a point. Seriously, he’s not wrong.

For the record, Haggar scares me

So much makes so much more sense now that we know Zarkon is the Original Black Paladin

That… makes no sense… “enough essence to open a wormhole”

Why are you transforming? More pieces to shoot at is usually a smart idea…

Hey hey, THACE!

Why can’t you have two active at once? I’m honestly serious.

I mean too OP, got it, but you can maneuver around that for temporary stuff

Shiro, use your words, yeah?

“Thinking” uh huh you mean “telepathy” right?

I genuinely forgot that Shiro got booted from Black

Damn! Yes Shiro! Kick some ass!

Ok, here’s the deal, Keith’s not listening to Coran, but he doesn’t have all the info (LIKE THE FUCKING BAYARD), Zarkon’s the OG Paladin, and he’s in distress

I HATE TELEPORTERS!

“Could have been” … uh Kuron exists ??

Also, Shiro with yellow eyes is fucking terrifying

We ain’t ficking stupid VLD

Zarkon’s a fucking idiot

Written properly his power-hungry attitude works even with him destroying his own ship

But it wasn’t so it’s null

You aren’t even subtle about Galra Keith

How can Allura see through Illusions?

Nobody knows!

Shiro, you have no jetpack, how are you so fast?

“Who cares, wormhole!” mood

I… uh… I want to do SO many things with this idea

Preferably not what they actually do...

#voltron legendary defender #voltron legendary disappointment #voltron legendary disgrace #voltron legendary disaster #voltron #voltron rewritten defender #voltron season 1 #ship thoughts #multishipper #episode thoughts #season thoughts #shiro #lance #keith #voltron allura #pidge #hunk #coran

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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years

Text

New Thoughts on Inmates (4x10)

Okay, so weeks ago, just before watching 10x01 actually, I went back and we watched Inmates. You could call it a scientific experiment. I had a hypothesis that if I looked at the structure and chronology of Inmates, which I haven't looked at in several years and we've learned a lot since then, it would lay out the structure of death fake outs.

Well, my hypothesis didn't entirely pan out. First of all, Rick and Michonne weren’t even in Inmates (I forgot that) so it couldn't have it encompassed all the death fake outs anyway. That said, I did find some interesting things and take some notes. This post is just to lay out what I found.

The first thing I learned is that I really need to re-watch the entire series knowing what we know now, because everything will different. In fact, @wdway has recently gone back and done this with a few episodes and she reports the same thing. We understand SO much more now that we know where they're going with it. And the dialogue can be taken much more literally than we ever suspected back then.

Beth and Daryl:

I talked about some of this recently. Beth insists other people are still alive and they can’t be the only ones who made it out of the prison. She insists they track and try to find some of these people. When they find some footprints, which are actually Lizzie and Mika’s, Beth says, “at least that means they’re alive.” Daryl answers, “No. It just means they were alive four or five hours ago.” And Beth says, "They’re alive!"

I think we can apply this to Beth. If the “four or five hours ago” represent S4/S5, it’s just saying she was alive then. Which is obvious. So, what would be the point of that? Well, I can see someone coming to Daryl in the present timeline (S10) and saying Beth is alive. This is a way of saying well, she was alive in S4 and S5, but that doesn't necessarily mean she still lives. Then Beth insists, "They’re alive!" Because she is too. Later on, when she sees the shoe by the tracks, she assumes they’re dead and her hope is dashed. But actually, Lizzie and Mika are still alive. She just doesn't realize it. So, we have some heavy foreshadowing here.

I also noticed that it shows Beth's feet walking along as they track through the woods. It looks a lot like Rick’s feet with the blood dripping onto them in 9x05. Yet another way of foreshadowing the coming death fake out, perhaps?

In the final bit of their section, she says, "We're not going to die. None of us." Now, in terms of plot, that's meant to be ironic. Because at this point, the prison has fallen and several people died, including Herschel. So it was very tragic to have her read this diary entry here because it turned out not to be true.

In terms of foreshadow, I think you can apply it to Beth and Daryl. After all, they're the only ones on the screen when she says this. So, neither she nor Daryl will die. (Hooray!)

Tyreese, Lizzie, and Mika, and eventually Carol:

Most of this stuff isn’t groundbreaking, but there was some interesting dialogue that really jumped out at me.

First let me say, I genuinely believe that Lizzie represents Carol and Mika represents Beth. I mentioned this briefly when I talked about how in 10x02, the “good” sibling and “bad” sibling where the good one dies and the twisted one lives might represent two halves of a whole. I’ve always interpreted Lizzie and Mica’s arc this way.

And I think this is a good time to bring this up because, due to spoilers about 10x03, they might be relevant to Carol’s arc again this week.

I've said before that when Carol gives her speech to Tyreese in the kitchen after Mika dies, when she says, (and I paraphrase) "she's too dangerous to be around people," she's talking about herself. I mean, she's talking about Lizzie, but this is why she keeps trying to leave the group after this as well. Carol believes that people always die around her because she make such bad decisions. And that if she stays around people she cares about, she’ll end up getting them killed. Unfortunately, that actually has happened with quite a few children. But my point here is that Lizzie = Carol and Mika = Beth.

Mostly, this is a foreshadow of what's going to happen to Grady. It's not a coincidence that the two of them end up together at Grady. In this particular arc, Beth (the Mika-like, hopeful, happy, sweet one) “dies” while Carol, (much darker, harsher, and Lizzie-like) lives on.

And no, that doesn’t mean Beth is dead for realz. I think it was a foreshadow of Coda and what happened in this arc.

What is the point of all this symbolism? I’m not entirely sure. I think they must be heading toward some kind of resolution. I mean, obviously we think Beth will resurface and come back to Daryl, but why involve Carol so heavily?

Well, I do have one thought, though admittedly I’m kind of pulling it out of the air right now. I can’t help but wonder if at some point, we’ll see a replay of Grady with a different outcome. Now, TD has said that for years concerning Beth. But what I mean is, as specifically concerns Carol, I wonder if Carol will die.

I know, I know. If any Carol-lovers read this they’ll give me hate for it. But I’m not predicting that Carol is going to die any time soon. If she does die, I doubt it will be until the very end of the series. The last season, at least, if not the last episode. So not anytime soon. I’m just saying I feel like they’re setting up an eventual reversal to the results of Coda.

After all, S4 was when we saw Carol murder Karen and David. And that was really the first time we saw her go VERY dark. Later that season, we have the Lizzie/Mika/Carol/Beth foreshadowing. And then in Coda, Carol, who definitely had some things to atone for, lived, while Beth, who’d been brought front and center as a companion for Daryl, apparently died. Everything happened in a very unjust and out-of-sync way, you know?

But I digress. Back to Inmates.

Evidence that Lizzie = Carol and Mika equals Beth comes in some of the seller dialogue.

At one point, Lizzie says to Mika, "You're not like Sasha." And Mika asks, "Why?" Lizzie answers, "Because you're still here, and Sasha isn't." It’s a fairly callous thing for Lizzie to say, but in her mind, it's practical.

But if you apply that Carol and Beth, it sort of suggests that Beth will outlive Sasha. And then there's the, "I'm still here," theme that we heard at Grady around Beth and Carol.

I also think Lizzie silencing Judith in a creepy way might foreshadowed children dying around Carol.

After Carol shows up to help, Mika feels very proud of herself and says to Tyreese, "I didn't run. I didn't leave Lizzie."

Because Mika = Beth, it’s a mirror of Beth saying, "I'm not going to leave you."

After that, they walk along the tracks toward Terminus because the guy they found told them to him it would be safe. Carol tells Ty about driving back to the prison and seeing him run into the woods with he girls.

Ty says, “Maybe we can circle back. Find the car."

Carol refuses, saying, "the walkers, and the fire. We can't go back to the graveyard."

Think about her response for a minute. Because for a long time, what she says here made on sense to me. Why not go get the car? They could all sleep in it at night, if nothing else, and it would protect them from walkers. And maybe the car died or ran out of gas, but she doesn’t actually say that.

But I think what’s being implied here is that she left the car at the prison. When she saw Ty and the girls run into the woods, she got out, ran after them on foot

(kind like THIS maybe?)

And left the car behind. So if they went back to get it, they’d be faced with all the walkers that had overrun the prison, which was on fire when they left. So it makes sense that she wouldn’t want to risk that with the girls.

It strikes me as a foreshadow of what happens with Beth. Ty specifically mentions going back to find a car that was left behind. She talks about walkers and fire. I can see that being something she says to Daryl in S5 when he wants to go back to get Beth's body.

“Can’t go back to a graveyard.”

Maggie, Sasha and Bob:

We’ve said a million times that Bob is a Beth parallel (X). He says in this scene that he’s smiling because he's not alone. He has faith. That dialogue alone makes him Beth parallel.

Maggie says, "I couldn't find Beth, but Glenn, got out and I know which way he went." Again, not anything groundbreaking, just a foreshadow of her not finding Beth and not really getting her back in this arc.

That pesky school bus. I've actually done a lot of theories on the school bus (X, X, X). My question is, how did the people on the school bus die? If the bus left the prison, how did everyone end up dead in the middle of the road? The only thing that makes sense is that perhaps person aboard died (perhaps a stray bullet from the prison hit them) and they turned into a walker and chaos ensued. We’re never given a definitive answer, but it’s odd that they all left alive, and Maggie finds the bus a very short way down the road, and everyone on the bus is dead.

Sasha and Bob decide to let the walkers out one at a time and Maggie will kill them. They want to control the flow, so they don't get overwhelmed, and Maggie needs to know Glenn isn’t one of the dead inside.

A few things I need to say about this. Letting only one or two walkers at a time and then losing control, so they all come out at once, is exactly what happened with the boat in 10x01. We've actually seen this theme a lot, and it’s very entangled with the death fake out symbolism. First because Maggie thinks one of the walkers on the bus is Glenn, so this is a prequel to his S6 fake out, and then also because a blond walker falls out of the bus and hits the ground at Maggie’s feet. (Very Beth-ish).

Then it happens on a BOAT in 10x02. So I think something like this happened with Beth after Coda. I’m not sure what the circumstances would be, but we’ve seen this over and over again.

Maggie wears red shoelaces, which shows that she's in part of the death fake out sequence that involves Glenn. (They’re in their trial separation period.) She thought Glenn was on the bus and might be dead, but was happy to find out he wasn't there, and later they reunite. Meanwhile, 6x07/08, she's wearing the red shoelaces again when she climbs the ladder. Glenn survives and they reunite.

So, both a foreshadow of Glenn’s fake out, but also by extension, of Beth's.

Glenn and Tara:

Next, we see Glenn wake up at the prison. He wakes upon the broken bridge, which represents the broken community, because the prison just went down. I've also said before that, in terms of Maggie looking for Glenn, she thought he left the prison, and didn't even think to go back there to look for him. She simply continued her search outward. But at the time, he was actually back at the prison where she'd originally left him. I translate that into Beth. They would never think that she went back to the hospital, but we think that's exactly where she was when Daryl thought she was dead.

We see some alcohol references here as Glenn picks up the alcohol and ends up using it to get out of the prison with Tara.

Something else I suddenly realized when watching this episode. The virus at the prison might actually tie to the radiation, the helicopter group, and the water scarcity. Why? Well, Glenn got sick with the virus, but managed to pull through. Right before the Gov attacked the prison, Maggie said she was going to get him some water. She never actually got it for him as the prison was attacked and they had to make a run for it. She did go back and get him and put him on the bus, but didn’t bring him water. So, I feel like there's a tie there between illness and water. Perhaps surviving radiation sickness and then finding water?

(Remember that in FTWD S4, the group actually got methanol (or was it ethanol) poisoning from drinking bad water. So we’ve seen sickness and water be linked more than once.)

Also, keep in mind that at the end of this episode, Glenn and Tara meet new people (Abraham, Eugene, and Rosita) who came from where? Texas. And that's exactly where the Fear crew currently is and we think they will probably run into the helicopter people.

Glenn passes out. I always kind of assumed it was because he was still weak from recovering from the virus. That's probably true. But those who got sick became really dehydrated and Glenn needed water, which again, Maggie never actually got for him. So once he left the prison, I think she passed out from dehydration. I went and looked at the next episode where he wakes up in the back of Abraham’s truck. Sure enough, the first thing Tara does when Glenn wakes up is offer him more water. After that, he recovers completely. We don't really see him being sick again. That's probably because not only has he already recovered from the virus, but he has access to plenty of water.

So I’m seeing this as a foreshadow that TF will experience some kind of illness, possibly from radiation. And on the heels of it, a water scarcity. Just when they’re almost dying from lack of water, some one will come from Texas (probably Morgan, one of the Fear crew, or possibly even Beth) to give them water.

So once again, we have a foreshadow of illness and water and people coming from Texas to save the day all wrapped up together, clear back in S4. Please don't try to tell me that this has been planned for a long time.

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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zephi-dreams · 5 years

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alright i’m barely even coherent enough to type down my thoughts after 5 hours of sleep and an episode of hyperventilating and sobbing but let’s fucking do this

let’s start with this: this is the canon ending we have. you can choose to love it, hate it or be neutral. just respect other’s opinions on it and don’t harass anyone. and please know that the team behind voltron worked hours, weeks, months, to years on this show.

now let’s get down to business to defeat the huns

i’m sure lance, allura and allurance stans can agree they both deserved better. now allurance may not have been my ideal endgame (if you can call it that), but it was still cute. i saw it coming, we all kinda did. lance has grown and matured enough as a person, and allura saw that at least. so i am pleased with what we got with them. the date, the kiss, the cuddling and lance’s genuine care and worry for allura really made me like what they had while it lasted.

also rip to any other shippers out there, especially to the plance and sheith shippers out there, as a plance and sheith shipper myself i mourn with you. but remember, not everything has to be canon in order for you to love it.

now i think we should really get to business.

allura deserved so much better. she was someone who had thing taken from her: her family, her planet, her entire race, her crown and finally her own life. and she accepted that. which is unfair beyond belief, she deserves to be happy with the rest of the paladins. but after bingeing the past seasons, there were many times where allura would attempt to do things for the greater good, even if it cost her life. it felt obvious in the end. does that mean i agree with it? no. does that mean i didn’t bawl at 8am? absolutely not. i may be brain dead at the moment, but i can’t think of another way to restore every reality imaginable, to let other characters live. in the end she was able to bring life back to destroyed planets, at the cost of her own.

each goodbye she said to the paladins ripped my heart out, what hurts me most that she couldn’t say one to coran, her second father. the man who helped raised her didn’t even get to say goodbye.

now my theory about lance becoming altean(?) is that it was obviously a gift to him, to remember her bye. does that mean he has altean powers now? idk. we don’t get an explanation other than his marking glow when the voltron lions fly off. i’ve seen someone say it could be a soulmate mark and it glows when allura’s presence is near?? i like that idea

also what was with the lions?? why did they fly off? did they pick up some energy and that’s why they were flying towards the shape of allura in space? or were they flying away because they were no longer needed to protect the universe?? or it was used as a dramatic effect to send off the series. i really hope to get some answers

ok but it all honestly, for voltron to have a m/m kiss is pretty big. i’m happy shiro found true happiness, but i’m obviously disappointed it wasn’t keith, aka, his best friend, the man who was literally the closest person to him. i mean curtis is okay, he cute i guess. but he’s literally some random dude that shiro knew only for a year, and we didn’t see that development besides curtis cheering him on at the arm wrestling competition and then boom! wedding. keith knew him for years, and you can’t just forget about their relationship like that.

i’m pleased to know for sure lotor was severely misguided, and his true intention was to help people. but the years of abuse finally made him snap, and he suffered. he looked happy to see his mother, and his real father on the other side. also let’s mention that lotor’s corpse was still inside the sincline and it was decomposing YIKES. AND MY THEORY ABOUT THE CORRUPTED QUINTESSENCE IN HIS VEINS WAS RIGHT I CAN BE HAPPY ABOUT THAT AT LEAST!

alright now for some stuff that hasn’t really been talked about

let me gush about pidge and the holts in general because it’s mandatory. pidge was willing to give up a super rare video game to dress allura up, and to make lance happy. SHE WAS HEARTBROKEN BY THE DESTRUCTION OF OLKARION, SHE APPRECIATED WHAT RYNER TAUGHT HER SO MUCH!!! SHE COULD SE THROUGH TIME YO!! pidge moved on from her glasses.. giving them to her robot chip to show that her character arc is finally done, how much she’s grown. god THAT SHIT HURTED. colleen and pidge are literally me and my own mother and i love them. matt with a pony tail is amazing, and short hair matt ain’t half bad yo. sam holt still continues to be a legend

HUNK GOT THE BEST OF THIS SEASON LET’S BE REAL. HE WAS AN ICON THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE THING

og paladins?? zarkon realizing what he did?? holy shit

there was like... nothing of keith and shiro. so rip sheith again

kosmo got REALLY FUCKING BIG

and once again, allura deserved all the happiness in the world

(12/15) EDIT

i got some more stuff

again, allura deserved better and didn’t even need to die. yeah, with her gaining access to oriande and saying “i need to learn the secrets of life. i give my own.” was a hint to her death. even if we got the open ambiguous ending with shiro and keith, allura would’ve died anyway. i feel that was inevitable with all the build up with her attempted sacrifices before. but what doesn’t make sense about it and why it wasn’t needed, is that honerva also gained access to oriande, she would’ve learned just as much as allura. so allura dying with honerva is unnecessary. honerva could’ve just died alone to bring back every reality without allura. it could’ve been avoidable, so yeah it’s unfair.

also i fully believe lance ain’t altean, the marks are just a reminder of allura. it’s practically a scar for him to remember her, and they glow when her presence is around. i feel he won’t be able to fully move on from that, and it’s just cruel to have him emotionally suffer like that. tbh i also don’t think it’s wrong for lance to be a farmer, he already knew how to milk a cow so? i guess some of his family were involved with a farm in the first place idk.

the very final image with allura space i think is the reference to the cosmic dust, and how they are all connected in a way. still don’t know why the lions left their paladins on altea just to fly into space but go off i guess

pidge gave up her own happiness for allurance’s, pidge really out there supporting allurance. also i will always believe pidge had a crush on lance and swallowed it down in order to make someone else happy and that’s that. rip plance but it’s still in my heart

also bi veronica and lesbian acxa own my soul thanks

ryan kinkade?? a true director, everyone loves him.

i hope hunay may have gotten together post canon so i have that but rip team punk but i always saw them more as a brotp

like sheith was literally forgotten about... all of what they meant to each other just disappeared and it was bs. i could go on but i don’t wanna get more upset.

in conclusion: sheith and allurance deserved better, allura deserved better in general, so did lance, basically everyone deserved better in this season. many writers left after s6 because they didn’t agree with what dreamworks wanted to do with the show and that’s why it’s so messy. the staff had their hands tied. thanks for coming to my ted talk.

so. wow that’s it huh? that’s the last premiere of voltron i can rant about. well, it’s been one hell of a ride, folks.

#vld spoilers #voltron #vld #allurance #sheith #plance #voltron season 8 #vld season 8 #long post #my posts

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killian-whump · 5 years

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Killian Jones deserves more friendships... Just sayin

YES.

Although, to be fair, he does have friendships and relationships in the show. Plenty of them, in fact! The problem is that they’re TOLD to us rather than SHOWN to us most of the time, and the few glimpses we GET of these relationships are so short and infrequent that it makes them easy to forget or underestimate, and WAY too easy for people to shrug off or sweep under the rug in order to focus on whatever relationships THEY want to paint as being the “one and only” important relationship in Killian’s storyline.

For fun, let’s have an impromptu retrospective of his canon relationships:

Hook and His Mother: From Wish Hook’s naming of Alice, and his comment that his mother “tried to stay with [him] as long as she could” we know that they had a good relationship, he remembers her fondly, and she left him all too soon. Unfortunately, that’s literally all we know - and we never got to SEE her.

Hook and His Father: Before he sold his sons into slavery for a rowboat, Brennan Jones seemed to be a good father. We’re told this by the show in the way he comforts Killian, and how Killian idolizes him and wants to be just like him. Granted, this could be due more so to Killian’s own tendency to pick a person in his life and put them on a pedestal, but we know from the others he’s put on such pedestals that he tends to choose people he feels are good people. Even Killian’s “He wouldn’t do that!” outburst when he learns what his father has done points to the fact that his relationship with Brennan before this point was positive enough that the boy genuinely doesn’t believe his father would do this to him. And it is this good relationship they had that left Killian feeling as abandoned and betrayed as he did. Had the relationship been bad from the start, he may not have been as scarred by the abandonment, itself.

Hook and Liam: The show makes a HUGE deal about how important Liam is to Hook, and we can see that in how Hook talks about him and the few flashbacks we were allowed to see… but he only actually appears in three episodes. It’s just the first of many examples where we’re told “this is an important relationship of Hook’s” without being shown enough evidence in the show to really illustrate how or WHY it’s so important. We only get glimpses and are forced to fill in the blanks on our own.

Hook and Milah: Like with Liam, we are told in a myriad of ways just HOW important this relationship is to Hook, but shown very little of it. Fandom has done a wonderful job of filling in the blanks, of course, but there’s so little canon information to go on, aside from the fact that we’re TOLD that his love for her never waned for literally hundreds of years. It’s why some fans can so easily shrug off the importance of this relationship, as well - which is the problem when it comes to almost ALL of Hook’s relationships. He has them; we’re told he has them, but without SEEING them, it’s easy for people to discredit them.

Hook and Smee: Yes, we know they’re “best mates” and Smee is always around and he’s Hook’s first mate and always loyal to him… but you can count the number of truly meaningful scenes they share on, well, one hand. The show relies more on the viewer knowing that Hook and Smee are a classic duo than they use the actual storytelling to show us that it’s true.

Hook and Baelfire: Hook didn’t sell Baelfire off of his ship the day after he arrived. It was some time later. You can tell by how close they are in the Port/Starboard scene, when Hook reveals his own abandonment to him. Hook also confirms it when he tells Emma that Neal was with him “long enough to know I miss him, too”. That wasn’t a day or two. It was awhile. Long enough to profoundly affect Hook. Long enough for Hook to harbor (and maintain) almost fatherly feelings towards the boy. And we were cheated out of seeing it.

Hook and Cora: We saw more of this than a lot of other relationships, but nowhere near enough. How did they go from literally trying to and/or almost killing each other to being partners who tease each other with comments like, “Why do you still doubt me?” and are obviously banging in kinky ways. I want to know more about how that relationship developed. I want to know more about how sincere it was (or wasn’t), because it feels deeper than the usual superficial villain pair-up that we usually see, and this holds true when they’re reunited in S5 in the Underworld. There is a warmth between them in that scene that points to a sincere friendship that I wish we’d seen more of.

Hook and Emma: This one we get to see in its entirety, and it’s beautiful.

Hook and Tinkerbell: Again, we’re TOLD they had a history, but mostly through off-handed comments, implications, their consistently friendly/flirty demeanor towards each other, and behind-the-scenes confessions that the actors were told they’d had a fling.

Hook and David: Another one we get to see pretty thoroughly. Bless.

Hook and Belle: Okay, so he knocked her out and almost killed her on their first meeting. Aaaaaaand he tried to kill her on their second meeting. And he shot her and erased her memories on their third. But… it got better! This is one of the few relationships the show stuck with and actually gave us glimpses of throughout the seasons, making it feel like a genuine friendship that was growing deeper and more meaningful as time went by.

Hook and Ariel: This one goes without saying. Yes, they had some ups and downs and some bludgeonings and slaps, but ultimately, these two are friends. And Wish Hook and Wish Ariel’s friendship just proves this all the more. However, as usual, the kind of “blink and you’ll miss it” acknowledgement of this friendship makes it all too easy for people to dismiss it as “fanon”.

Hook and Henry: Another pairing that we got to see develop in canon, thank goodness. Hook went from the “cool pirate guy” to the guy his mom was dating to a true member of his family and his step-father. And it’s great. And S7 gave us Henry meeting another version of his step-father, this time as a grown man, and forging a genuine friendship with him, as well.

Hook and Ursula: Granted, they definitely weren’t friends when Ursula came back to Storybrooke, but she sailed on Hook’s ship with him and his crew for some time before Hook was forced to betray her. And when he made right on this betrayal years later and got her voice back for her and reunited her with her father (who admitted his guilt in Hook’s betrayal as well as apologizing for his role in it), Ursula was clearly willing to forgive Hook and help him in return. I think, given the positive foundation of their relationship and their eventual reconciliation, a friendship could’ve (and should’ve) blossomed here.

Hook and Nemo: Aw, geez. The show sets Nemo up as a fatherly figure to the men he “rescues” aboard his ship. He’s clearly a father figure to Hook’s half-brother, Liam. He openly states that he wants to help Killian similarly, literally telling Hook he wants him to join their family. And while events in the past led to Killian leaving, it’s obvious in the present-day scenes between these two that Nemo still sees Killian as a part of his “family” - and that Killian feels the same. That the show cast him off entirely to shores unseen is a damn crime.

Hook and Liam: Another brother. Another Liam. Another family member that Killian begins to bond with… and then gets literally shipped off the show.

Hook and Snow White: Out of nowhere, they have a close moment on the docks where she kisses his cheek and says she’s glad he’s the one Emma’s found to share her life with. Sweet. He also calls her “Mummy” in a later scene, during the finale. Hilarious. BUT WHERE’S THE REST OF IT?! And by “it” I mean the rest of their damn relationship?!

Hook and Jasmine: These two form an entirely unlikely (but delightful) friendship in S6. However, we’re kind of just expected to assume there’s a friendship there by the closeness they share (their frank conversation on the Nautilus) and the smiles and warmth they consistently address each other with.

Hook and Black Beard: Now THIS is how you do a “frenemies” ship right here. They’re like the Itchy and Scratchy of Once. They try to kill each other. They play cards. They try to kill each other again. They take over the other one’s ship. They talk about their lady troubles. They try to kill each other. They offer unsolicited advice. They go portal hopping together. They randomly have a swordfight. They abandon each other to child natives. They try to kill each other again. They hunt for treasure. They plot out elaborate schemes to give friends a good adventure. This one’s gold.

Wish Hook and Regina: Oh, goodness. S7 gives us so many subtle touches, smiles, and intimate moments between these two that those watching for such things are convinced something more than friendship was brewing there - but it was done SO subtly that those who weren’t watching for it literally missed it all entirely. Whether they were building up something for an eventual romance or just presenting them as extremely close friends, there was definitely something purposely put there in canon. Hopefully, we would’ve found out more about it in S8, had we been lucky enough to get one.

Wish Hook and Alice: Finally, another relationship we’re SHOWN and allowed to enjoy as it progresses - both in flashbacks and in the present day. BLESS.

Wish Hook and Jack/Nick: Here’s the thing. Nick is introduced to the show in S7 before the ten year jump to when the curse is cast. And he’s shown still with the group at Lucy’s tenth birthday party - and is obviously caught up in the curse itself. So that’s over ten years that Hook knew Jack in the New Enchanted Forest. Regina, fully awake in Hyperion Heights, tells Lucy that her father (Henry), Rogers (Hook) and Nick (Jack/Hansel) were like the three Musketeers back in the fairytale world and convinces her to set up a “guys night out” for them. The focus of this is, of course, on Henry’s relationships with Hook and Nick, but from Regina’s comments and the fact that all three men are set up to hang out together as a trio, we can assume Hook and Jack were good friends. As usual, we’re subtly TOLD the man has a friend… and left to fill in the blanks for ourselves :P

Wish Hook and Zelena: This is another subtle one. When Zelena shows up in the New Enchanted Forest looking for her daughter, she’s not that friendly to the Hook she finds there. In fact, she dismisses him outright and tells him to piss off. But he stands up to her, sticks with her, manages to even impress her a little… and ultimately helps save Robin’s life (and Zelena’s). By the end of the episode they share, Zelena is obviously warming up to the pirate - and when Kelly encounters him in Hyperion Heights, her fondness for him is visible in spite of the danger she’s in and his own obliviousness (”It’s Detective, actually…”).

Wish Hook and Robin: Obviously, they’re going to have a familial relationship once Robin and Alice get married, but it’s obvious from the show that they both have deep feelings and great respect for each other already. Hook, thinking he’s on his last legs and going to die soon, takes it upon himself to ask Robin to look after Alice when he’s gone. That denotes a great trust and affection for her. And, similarly, Robin respectfully asks for his blessing (what was once customary is, in Robin’s more modern generation, considered old fashioned and unnecessary) and insists that she will do whatever it takes to keep him alive to see their wedding. This exchange shows us a lot of warm feelings between them.

Rogers and Tiana: These two are even sweeter than her beignets. And unlike some of the subtle friendships he’s had, this one’s a little more obvious.

Wish/Hook and Rumplestiltskin: Just when you thought it was safe to get trapped in a snowglobe with your arch nemesis… This one was just bizarre, really. After literally years in real time and centuries of show time being SHOWN how much these two hate each other… the show decided to TELL us in S7 that, actually, they were the closest thing the other one had to a friend that whole time. Sure, Jan. I try to murder all of my friends multiple times, as well as trying to make them (and their loved ones) suffer as much as possible. Some people love the twist, some people hate it… but in either case, it’s just WEIRD.

Ships I Left Off: I’m gonna be honest here. As much as I enjoyed Robin Hood and Hook’s scenes together, I never really bought them as being the best of friends. They seemed more like acquaintances to me, and I think the fandom colored them as besties based more on the friendship of the actors than on the actual canon content of the show. And even though Elsa and Arthur both spent episodes “adventuring” with Hook and he obviously grew to (or just did) like both of them, I don’t really feel like either of those led to lasting friendships that persisted beyond the “buddy adventure” episode they shared. I also left off crack ships and any ships that are entirely fanon creations.

So! In closing, I’d like to contend that it isn’t so much that Killian Jones needs more friendships… THE SHOW JUST NEEDED TO LET US SEE THE ONES HE’S FREAKING GOT.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

#killian jones #ouat meta #ships #not whxmp #retrospective #kw writes a thing #oc #anonymous #kw ask box

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hopevalley · 5 years

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WCTH Write-Ups: 1.4, “Secrets and Lies”

Hello, and welcome to another episode write-up!

I wanted to do a lot of these before the S6 premier, but it’s been hard to find the time to sit down for literal hours to put together each post. So, this episode begins a new version of my episode write-ups, reserved specifically for the older seasons. The goal is to have a format that allows me to post these more frequently, or at least more easily, so you can expect less rambling about the plot (because we’ve all seen the episode before and know how it goes) and more rambling about little things I’ve noticed, timelines, odd mentions, character bits, and so on.

Let me know what you think!

All right. Last time we dealt with a couple of different kinds of grief (Rosaleen’s and Mr. Backus’s), Reverend Anderson requested an investigation into the church-fire before he quit working for the mining company, and Cat Montgomery ended up number one on Jack’s church-fire suspect list...due to circumstantial evidence: whale oil.

But hey, Jack’s no fool! He asks Cat about it right away...

And she’s very compliant, of course, and tells Jack that she has to special order it to use to make candles--a side business she started when her husband died. “I still have three mouths to feed,” she tells him. “His death pension, it only goes so far.” The implausibility of a real death pension aside, this makes sense. These people haven’t really been given a real chance to mourn...or at least, most of them haven’t. Cat, and likely many others, can’t afford to just wait for things to happen; with the welfare of three children to keep in mind, she wasn’t given the luxury of time.

Jack gets a little pushy after this, suggesting that having to care for three children alone might make a person angry, and when Cat doesn’t understand where he’s going with it, he mentions the vigil, which was six weeks ago, and casually drops the fact that Cat wasn’t in attendance, to which she says, “I chose to grieve my husband privately.”

Jack comes clean about Cat’s place on the suspect list, more or less, and leaves her nervous and flustered in her garden.

Tiny Thoughts:

I like the attention to having a garden here; it’s too small to be of any real use, but I can dig it; at least there was an attempt made, and they’re utilizing the small backyard space as best as they can. I guess it could also be a bit of a glimpse into Cat’s life, or even just her husband’s; not everyone has a shed in their backyard! Heck, not everyone even has a fence.

The time frame even at this point is a little whack. You’ll see what I mean later.

I’m not sure how I feel about this scene, or this plot, in hindsight, but I’ll talk more about that soon.

“The children are my pupils, but they are also my instructors.” This was something I really enjoyed about the novel version of Elizabeth: she tried to keep an open mind and let learning happen on both sides of the classroom. This Elizabeth learns how to teach the students through getting to know her students, which isn’t quite as good, but, you know, I’ll take it.

This episode introduces us to Albert “Pockets” Bickley and gives us the first real glimpse at Elizabeth, The Hardened School-teacher. Honestly, seeing her act strictly to a misbehaving, bullying student was pure gold. She doesn’t hit anyone with a switch or do anything too crazy, but she’s In Charge and she acts it.

“I’ll make sure cleaning is extra fun for you.” I mean the raw power in her voice and stance is something to behold. I’m sure we all wished we had a teacher like this sticking up for us when we were children. I know I did.

And the way she just turns that attitude completely around to be peaceful and sweet to the bullied student? I dig it. This is a side of Elizabeth I really want to see more of. It’s no wonder Albert gets a little crush on her.

Tiny Thoughts:

I think they do an okay job of showcasing Albert as a character in this episode, but I really wish more of an effort was made to flesh him out as a person. The nickname of “Pockets” does a lot to explain what he does, but it doesn’t tell us much about where he comes from. I would like to assume Albert and his family are poor, and he’s had to make his own fun for most of his life thus far, hence him picking up pretty or interesting things he sees. Unfortunately he’s often dressed quite nicely, so we have to just assume they slapped a Quirky Trait on him for Plot Reasons. Most people might think these things are junk, but every now and then he finds something good. And hey, if you lost something, he’s the kid to go to; maybe he’ll be able to find it for you, if he hasn’t already picked it up. ;)

“I’ll admit, after what happened at the mine, I was angry enough at God to want to burn down a church, but I swear I didn’t do it.”

I really appreciate Cat’s character, but more than that, something missing in the later seasons is, well, what this scene gives us: Elizabeth socializing with the parents of her students...and better yet, taking their side in a way that lets us feel that they’re on friendly terms.

It’s never really made clear why Cat invited Elizabeth over. I guess we’re meant to assume that it was a vaguely subtle way of asking Elizabeth to talk to Jack about it while also looking for support and/or a second (educated) opinion.

Tiny Thoughts:

I appreciate that Cat and Emily share a bed while Gabe and his brother share a space. It’s definitely not ideal but it makes the most sense.

Gabe up late reading is sweet.

Seeing the children supporting each other is another thing that... Well, I won’t say it’s missing in later seasons, but it lacks the punch that it did early on. Gabe holding Emily to comfort her about her fears feels genuine in a way a lot of the later stuff just doesn’t.

Mr. Spurlock and Mr. Gowen go to Jack to ask about the reopening of the church fire investigation, which...seems repetitive because I’m pretty sure they already knew about it; maybe the intention behind their visit is to confirm that even after Reverend Anderson dropped the need to investigate, that Jack was still looking into it?

Anyway, Gabe’s timing is beyond atrocious, but I can really appreciate this kid as an actor. He was good. I think the scripting could be better, but he’s a teenager and he’s angry, and I love how that’s handled.

“If you try to take her from us, I swear to God I’ll fight you.” What a line! You can laugh about it if you want to, but it’s honestly really sad. You know this kid can’t fight Jack; he doesn’t have the training, doesn’t have the strength. But he would, for his mama. Gabe loves his family and he wants to protect his mom--and that’s part of what makes him such a good character.

Tiny Thoughts:

Mr. Spurlock was in training to become a Mountie and instead turned to the Pinkerton Agency, which he calls “a real job”--implying that being a Mountie is not.

Mr. Gowen says that the church fire, and therefore the vigil, occurred a month after the mining accident.

“This is a company town, and I need to maintain order or the entire system falls apart. We can’t have citizens running around, doling out their own sense of warped justice. On that we can agree, can we not?”

This is a small example of what makes Mr. Gowen such a great character. He plays an amazing antagonist, and it won’t be much longer before we’re into episodes that let him shine in that role, but for now he’s not quite there. This is insight into his character that is easily overlooked; he might be a jerk sometimes, but he knows what matters to him.

The scene with Reverend Anderson is short, but I’d like to just mention it really quick because I can appreciate the awkward small talk between Cat and the Rev.--and how that small talk actually is just them discussing, very briefly, the plotline from the last episode.

Which segues nicely into the next scene, where Elizabeth kneels down to talk to Rosaleen and again hearkens back to the previous episode. “It’s beautiful. Like the sound of your voice.”

It’s a bit heavy-handed for my taste, especially back to back like that, but at least it’s making an effort to tie the episodes together.

Jack and Elizabeth’s relationship in this episode makes them interesting to watch. You can tell there’s something there, but the situation with the church fire investigation keeps them apart and interferes in their ability to effectively communicate. Something I really appreciate about their interaction in this scene is how both characters are frustrated for very different, but no less believable, reasons.

Elizabeth wants to help Cat, and finds it hard to believe that Jack’s inquiries come from an honest, noble place. Jack wants to help Cat, too, but is finding it difficult to do so considering, well, the evidence and lack of an alibi on Cat’s part.

His suggestion to talk to the kids is a bold one, but I understand both his desire to try it and Elizabeth’s horror. The children shouldn’t have to be exposed to this kind of a thing, and it seems Jack would normally agree with her on that, but sometimes circumstances... Well, they’re not ideal, you know?

And this is a theme they carry into some of the later seasons with the counterfeit money plot, or even AJ’s perjury plot. The law isn’t always fair and just. In fact, it can and will be used to sentence people regardless of extenuating circumstances (in the case of AJ) , or it can be abused to protect bad people (as in the counterfeit plot).

Tiny Thoughts:

The little bird Albert made for Elizabeth really is sweet, isn’t it?

Jack’s interviews with the children are... Well, interesting. I like that Gabe doesn’t say “Mrs. Stanton” but rather, “Abigail Stanton” and then, later, he says, “Abigail stayed with us until [Ma] got there.”

I like the implication that Abigail is a Trusted Person that Cat felt she could turn to. And also, we know that not only was Abigail at the vigil, but Cat’s children know her very well, and either Gabe knows her well enough to be allowed to call her Abigail, or he’s being rebellious by doing it. Either could be interesting to think about.

Jack’s interaction with young children is showcased well here. He doesn’t treat Emily the same way he treats Gabe, and she responds to it well. I like that a lot.

Tiny Thoughts:

Cat didn’t come home until morning, and when she did get home, she crawled into bed with Emily. So if Abigail stayed the night, where did she sleep? Maybe just in a chair downstairs...

“The truth is always right, Emily. You did just fine.”

Something that always really got to me in this episode was Gabe’s relationship with Cat. A lot of shows flop when it comes to showcasing a believably sweet mother/son relationship, especially where a teenage boy is involved (he’s either completely disinterested/disengaged or holding onto the apron strings), but Gabe and Cat are a perfect balance.

When Jack tries to take Cat in to answer some questions, Gabe’s reaction--and then Cat’s reaction to Gabe’s reaction--are just so good. Heartfelt. They don’t feel scripted so much as felt.

“Stop! I need you to listen to me!”

“No, Ma! You didn’t do anything! Don’t go with him!”

“I know, I just... I just have to answer some of his questions, all right? And right now I need for you to be a grown-up. To be strong, okay?”

AND THEN THAT HUG.

It hits me hard literally every time I’ve seen it. It’s fast and tight and scared and it’s amazing.

Gabe as a character is just the perfect age for this kind of story. He’s so close to being an adult while still not being there, and there’s something to be said for those years, if you remember them. You feel grown up even though you know you’re not, and you know you’re limited. Gabe does, too, and it’s frustrating and scary for him. I won’t say he still needs his mom in the traditional sense (someone to take care of him), but he needs her emotionally; he needs that connection.

Tiny Thoughts:

I will always be upset that Gabe never made it past the first season. There was a lot of potential for his character and he offered a unique perspective due to his age.

It’s hilarious to think about how the jail cell has been the same this entire time.

Anyway, Cat in jail is unpleasant, but I like Jack’s explanation to Elizabeth: “Because I have a responsibility to treat everyone equally, whether it be Catherine Montgomery or...Henry Gowen.”

“Just...let me do my job.”

Jack’s an interesting character in that he is the law, abides by the law, and tries to stick by the books. Comparing him to later-seasons Bill makes for an interesting experience. Is Bill the product of 30 years of Mountie work? Is Jack just an ideal youth? I don’t think a person can claim there’s only one factor. As we know, the character of Bill is the product of 30 years of Mountie work plus many of those years being in a high-stress position plus his marriage of convenience to Nora and any in-law drama that might bring plus the experience of losing his son and Nora leaving him plus... The list goes on.

Jack is still young, comparatively, but he’s not fresh in this field, and I really like that his character is wrapped up in this loyalty not only to his job, but to doing his job The Right Way. We don’t really get that from anyone else, and more importantly, Jack isn’t painted as a jerk for it, at least not objectively. (Elizabeth’s opinion is, of course, very subjective & completely biased!)

Tiny Thoughts:

I also really like what Jack says here: “But you’d be surprised at what people are capable of when they’re hurting Or when they’re angry.” It alludes to a history of experience that helps tie in his irritation at being assigned to Coal Valley when he ought to have been given a more important posting. He’s definitely seen some things.

Albert is such a sweet kid.

I like the implication that Mr. Spurlock has been around a reasonably long amount of time--long enough to know the kids in town, and to know to ask Albert to keep his eyes open for the necklace.

Tiny Thoughts:

I really dig Elizabeth’s high-collared dresses.

“Girls don’t care if a gift is fancy, not even girls who used to be rich.” This was cute.

Again Gabe is a ball of terrible teen energy. After he overhears Dottie and another woman gossiping about his ma, he runs to the jail to confront her and suddenly he’s on the other side of the argument: he thinks she might have done it because she won’t just be open and honest and tell the truth.

I wouldn’t say it’s OOC; it makes sense. The kid is scared, he’s feeling a lot of things, and his mother is lying--has lied about things in the past, too. That probably added up in his head and he doesn’t know what to think of her anymore. It’s a shame, really, because Cat hasn’t done anything wrong, but Gabe is old enough that he feels he should be trusted with the truth.

And...he’s not.

Reverend Anderson’s awkward visit to talk to Elizabeth about the kids... Yikes.

“What’s an 11-year-old need a bear for?” Well, we have an age for Miles at least. And Gabe’s starting trouble but at least we know why. You know he doesn’t want to feel like the only one “being strong” right now.

And then we find out that Mr. Spurlock wanted to marry Cat. You know, he’s not a bad-lookin’ guy. Too bad he’s so smug.

Cat and Elizabeth’s jail discussion is so wonderful. Elizabeth is hurt that she defended Cat even though Cat chose to hide things, and it’s about this point that Cat makes the choice to come clean to Elizabeth.

I really like the concept of Cat in this situation: a woman who has something to hide for her own reasons, who wants to keep it a secret even at the risk to her relationship with her oldest son & her neighbors. It doesn’t matter what the secret is so much that it is a secret, and in a small town...you know there are none--not for long, anyway!

And I think my favorite part of this scene is how Cat talks about her husband: “My husband, Joe, was a....good man, Elizabeth. He was a wonderful father... But he made...mistakes. He had a weakness, one that he was terribly ashamed of... One that the children didn’t know about. No one knew about it... He liked to, uh...gamble.”

In the novel, the role of “mother of three, gambling husband” was given to the character of Abigail Stanton, and Abigail’s motherly/mentor role was taken by a boarding house owner named Molly. The novel never goes into detail about the gambling husband (or the wife character) the way the television show does (even though it does take time to showcase the three children). Something the WCtH series did really well is show different types of relationships. Obviously in e4 we aren’t really far enough in to know that this is the case, but something that helped keep people invested were scenes like this: scenes that showcase and sympathize with, I don’t know, the human condition.

There’s nothing bad about this plotline! In fact, Cat’s role is so well-acted, it’s easy to get invested and feel horrified right along with her. Nowadays we might scoff at the “gambling” thing, but it’s not really anything to laugh at. Most of us know when to stop buying lottery or raffle tickets, or when to walk away from a casino slot machine, but addiction in general is a very real issue (see: modern casual alcoholism, loot box gambling in video games, et cetera), and in 1910 gambling was a different kind of issue. Women didn’t work outside the home much, particularly married women (men would consider it an insult to their ability to provide for their family), so debts incurred by a man would be shouldered by the whole family...even after his death, and with no means to repay lost money. And a man who didn’t have self-control to know when to quit was often shunned by his neighbors...and his wife and children suffered a similar fate though usually with a side of pity thrown in.

Cat’s humiliation and shame over her husband’s gambling addiction aren’t even remotely amusing. Worse, she didn’t even get a week to mourn her husband before a debt collector came calling.

“I couldn’t go to my friends--I was too ashamed. And Joe was a good man. There was no way I was gonna let this town think poorly of him.” I love these lines because it leaves things just open enough to be interesting. We’ve seen how gossipy this town can get (Dottie and the other woman in the mercantile), so we understand Cat’s situation a little better. Joe might have done bad things, but he never hurt her or the kids, and we can assume that most of the time, he was good to be around. It’s one of those situations where we, the audience, aren’t given a complete picture of Cat’s relationship to Joe, at least not outside of, well, this. She obviously cared about him, and though upset about his addiction, didn’t want others’ memories of him, especially her children’s, to be sullied by his one great weakness.

Mr. Spurlock fits into this equation, of course, because he played cards with Joe, knew Cat and her family were in trouble, and jumped in to offer to help... “If I would just be...friendly to him.” Yikes! We all know what that really means. And anyway, this is where the conversation gets a little iffy, starts to sound more scripted... I get that Mr. Spurlock is the bad guy here, but I think the important takeaway from his involvement in Cat’s issue is that he wanted, and was willing, to take advantage of her situation. He didn’t actually care about her; he was just attracted to her.

On the plus side, Cat knew what he was doing and it made her angry, which was what she needed to rebuke him; I feel like if she’d had enough time, and was genuinely worried about she and her children being homeless, she might have felt forced into accepting his offer.

Elizabeth: “Why not just tell the truth and avoid all this?”

Cat: “Because I’m not the only one who adored my husband, Elizabeth. My children... My children had already lost so much. I could not let them lose their good memory of their father, too.”

Powerful stuff right there. She wanted to protect her children’s memory of Joe, but in the process might have made things worse for them, if, indeed, there was an issue with Jack finding the card shark/getting him to verify Cat’s story. Elizabeth knows just a little too much, and on one hand..I find it annoying. On the other, as a relative outsider, she has a unique perspective. She’s not married, she has no children; she probably can’t understand Cat’s dilemma even though she sympathizes with it. She’s not emotionally invested in it or in Joe, and can’t be because, well, she never met him. This helps her see the longer-lasting consequences of Cat’s choices far easier than Cat herself can. (And it’s not just Elizabeth who sees this! Jack does, too, hence his frantic insistence that Cat just admit whatever it is she’s hiding. It’s just that Elizabeth is the one we get to see voice her concerns.)

Tiny Thoughts:

Worth considering: Cat’s friends didn’t have money either. Most of them lost their husbands right along with Cat, or in Abigail’s case, lost a child, too. Even if she turned to her friends, it’s not as if they could help financially. Telling them her situation would just open her and her family up to hurtful gossip.

Mr. Spurlock’s, uh, guilt in these things is...meh. The charred remnants where he burned the whale oil container are so fresh there’s no way they’re even a handful of days old, but I guess I can let that slide.

“You took that can from her shed and burned it right here.” I mean, I doubt this, considering he has candles hanging up. He seems to make his own and therefore I have to assume just had his own oil.

I’m extremely meh on the “Jack rides in to save the day” bit, too. The scene was... Let’s just say it was overdramatic and overacted considering Mr. Spurlock’s only legal crimes were framing Cat and threatening Elizabeth, and the latter would be a shaky accusation/wouldn’t get him any time in jail.

Also, and this is really nitpicky, but giving a man with the last name of Spurlock the line “and she spurns me?” was just silly. C’mon.

The Cat-and-Kids reunion scene was sweet. I like all the hugging. This show could use more hugs.

And I love the Reverend and Cat’s interaction. Watching him humble himself and apologize sincerely... That was so nice... And it wasn’t just to Cat, either; it was to his former congregation, too. Reverend Anderson had a lot of potential to be an interesting and engaging character. I should also note that the actor is surprisingly good. His soft, moved, “It would be my joy,” when asked to lead the service was delivered perfectly for that moment.

Tiny Thoughts:

“Over this past many months...” Timeline inconsistency. He implies with this statement that he’s talking about the time post-accident, so...three months at best at this point?

You know, if Cat and Reverend Anderson were around a lot longer, I’d probably have started shipping them? Oops.

The last scene...is cute. I mostly just can’t get over the spider. It was a big guy. I’d probably die a little too if I were Elizabeth, and I’m generally not spooked by spiders. ;)

But Jack’s delivery of some lines in the scene are genuinely funny, so it’s a nice way to end the episode.

And now, for some further thoughts!

Timeline: Boy do I hate the timeline. I’ve probably said this before, because, like Reverend Anderson, keeping things brief goes against my nature, but the timeline here just doesn’t work for me. Here’s the basics of what this episode lined up for us:

The Mining Disaster

1 month later: Vigil, church burned.

1.5 months after the vigil: Jack comes to town.

I mean, this is...two and a half months. Everyone would still be deeply grieving, there’s no way Cat could pay off the debt that fast (she could make candles, sure, who is going to buy them all?), and a lot of the early issues just haven’t had the time, I think, to fester enough to warrant the plotlines that we’ve seen.

It’s not all bad, though. I mean, a month after the accident is a good time to have a vigil. It’s that point where you know nobody is left alive. Like, even if they haven’t suffocated in the mine, even if they had their lunches with them and access to water, after a month they’d be dead. So the vigil feels like it takes place at a good time.

My issue is mostly with, you know, everything else. And sure, sometimes disaster hits one thing after another, a veritable shit-storm, but when you’re looking at the narrative power of storytelling, it’s just not really necessary to cram everything in there so tightly.

My personal opinion? The vigil should have been further out-- a 3 or 6-month mark. Like a funeral--at a point when they’re worried or even convinced that the bodies won’t be recoverable. This is something that happened a lot in mining accidents, so it’s not unbelievable, and it brings with it its own special brand of grief. It would also make Cat’s not being there especially odd, and would give her enough time to believably pay off her husband’s debt. (And when looking at the first few episode plots, it gives the children time to grieve and for the recovery of bodies to re-open the wounds.)

The Spurlock Plot: Mr. Spurlock was really smug from the start, so I was happy to see him go, but I feel like he could have been a better antagonist character. Men acting out because a woman told them no isn’t a new thing; men have literally killed women for their no. So I’m sold on him framing Cat as a petty act of revenge, especially because he probably genuinely feels like he made her a good offer. (And again, if the plotline allowed for more time, he would come off a little less nasty for approaching her. As it is, it seems he was on her doorstep making an offer before Joe was cold in the ground.)

The worst part of this subplot is definitely that he pulls a gun on Elizabeth. First of all, he doesn’t need a gun to threaten her with; he has his fists, and secondly, it’s just...ridiculous. As if nobody would notice she was missing? As if she didn’t tell someone where she went? Please. Mr. Spurlock might be a bit of a scumbag, but he’s not an idiot. At the very least he’d try to find out if anyone knew she was there before he did something as crazy as make an effort to kill her.

The Church Fire: Hey, it was probably an accident after all!!! Which means of course that Mr. Spurlock’s only crime was framing Cat for it, and not really in a conniving, cunning way, either.

It’s just kind of an aside that ceases to matter, I guess.

The General Overall Episode: This is a good episode with a lot of heart! There are a few things I don’t quite care for, but for the most part it holds up really well and delivers a wholesome, satisfying story.

And guess what?

It’s another episode that doesn’t even have a glimpse of Abigail in it. Can you believe it? I had no idea she was missing from so many early episodes! I think I just got used to her being around pretty much all the time, and forgot her lack of plot focus at the beginning. This story started off about Elizabeth, and I feel like, at least for the first half of s1, maintained that stance.

Which brings me to my next thought/consideration/whatever: the early episodes were episodic in a way that the later ones were/are not.

All right, so a television series is generally either episodic or a serial. Serials usually have long-term plots, and episodic television relies on a lot of single-episode events.

WCtH is a little like The X-Files in that it sometimes utilizes both. TXF started out episodic, but with time tried to implement really large overarching plot themes (called “the mytharc”). WCtH did the opposite! It started out with that overarching plot, and with time...resolved it and never really tried it again--at least not to the same extent. I guess Bill Avery’s counterfeit money plot was as close as we ever got to a primary overarching plot again, but the mining accident and eventual trial were the original season-wide plot, and they were what got the show started.

Anyway, even though the series had an overarching plot that it slowly worked to resolve through the first season (and part of the second), it also tossed a lot of episodic content at the viewers, which is to say, standalone plots that found themselves mostly resolved in a single episode. For example, the Rosaleen plot in e3, or the “forgive me” sign in e1.

The early episodes let these subplots take over the episode, at least mostly, and the showrunners didn’t let the cast dictate who received screentime--that is to say, characters like Abigail were allowed to fade into the background while the plot focused on someone else, without them feeling pressured to either involve her or include her in the background for the sake of just...giving her screentime. Now, Lori Loughlin is a pretty big name, and I totally understand why she gets so many mini-plots in recent episodes, but I think something the early writers got right was this ability, or perhaps desire, to dedicate episodes to the plots they wanted people to see--without distraction.

So, in this episode, we get a lot of conclusions, but they’re almost all part of an interlocking plot. Mr. Spurlock’s actions are related to Cat’s actions, which of course are related to Gabe’s actions, and were a catalyst for Elizabeth and Jack’s interactions. Even Albert’s plot isn’t entirely standalone; his crush on Elizabeth is what prompts him to give her the necklace that Mr. Spurlock originally presented to Cat, and this allowed for the mystery to be solved.

Now, I know that as a series progresses, doing plots like this get exponentially harder: the characters at the point of s6 have established themselves quite thoroughly, so it’s not as easy to find someone to fit a role; the roles really have to be written with the characters in mind and not the other way around.

Which leads me to my original statement: the early episodic content was, yes, episodic, but most of the individual plotlines were actually akin to a rope: a lot of threads carefully braided together to make something much stronger than those individual strands could ever be on their own.

Newer episodes are pretty much just those individual strands, though. Pick any episode from s5, and you’ll see what I mean. In Weather the Storm, for example, the four main plots (lazy kid, brain surgery, investor’s son, & rattlesnake) had nothing whatsoever to do with one another--and this seems to hold true through most of s5. I guess you could argue that AJ returning had something to do with the investor plot, but it definitely reads as “they wrote the plot and put AJ into the role” more than “this plot was written for AJ.” Anyway, my point is that, in later seasons, there’s not a lot of interwoven, or at least well-woven, plotlines.

But again, and I can’t stress this enough, as characters start to stand on their own, doing these complex interwoven plots gets much more difficult, and the writers want to try and keep things as fresh as they can, so... It’s unfortunately a problem of the show’s age, I think, more than anything.

That said, here in s1, Abigail being allowed to just not be there for a couple of episodes was nice. It made me really root for her character when I did see her, and gave me time to miss her. In current WCtH, she’s around...all the time. Literally everywhere all at once. You can’t escape her, and even in episodes where she has no role, you’ll see her involved anyway, oftentimes in ways that don’t work very well for the character.

I thought it was an interesting thing to think about; we’ve always had several plotlines going at once--it’s just that in the first season they’re all related to one another, and in later seasons they’re just...completely separate plots happening all at once, which has the unfortunate side effect of splitting our attention between too many characters at once, and rather than getting one plot with many threads that hold it together, we just get flimsy strands of plot that can’t really stand and be interesting all on their own.

Just some food for thought!

#when calls the heart #season 1 #analysis and meta discussion #character studies and information #long post #jack thornton #elizabeth thatcher #cat montgomery #reverend anderson #mr spurlock #henry gowen #gabe montgomery

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