#not really spoilers for kid cosmic at all so i will not tag but

[raccoonfallsharder]

fanfiction masterlist i guess ♡

*this masterlist is OLD! find the new masterlist here

here's what you need to know about what is behind this cut: lots of smut, always with feelings and fluff, praise kinks, dirty talk, maybe some light d/s, enthusiastic consent. a few clean headcanons/minifics & fan art of your amazing OCs

(it's all rocket raccoon, all the time) also, please let me love your OCs (doodle requests temporarily paused)

If you would like to be added to the fanfiction update taglist (or removed), please let me know via comment, message, or ask! ♡

recently updated

headcanon 8 - rocket, lylla, & drax [NEW posted 9/17] headcanon 9 - dad glasses [NEW posted 9/21]

Reconnaissance for Beginners: An Instruction Manual (Fourteenth Visit) [ONESHOT. added 9/18] Part Three of Domestic Scenes in Space Travel

Chapter 1/6 Year Zero: Seed [NEW posted 9/24] florescence ❀ (a meetgroot)

Chapter XIV. Exactly Like a Flower. in which comfort is shared. [WIP 9/27] Chapter XV. Galaxy-Breaking Shit. in which more comfort is shared, and life is good. Briefly. [WIP 10/5] Window Across the Galaxy

I can't keep up with updating my kinktober prompts on a daily basis (I'm honestly amazed I've managed to keep up with the writing as well as I have and I've only been doing this for a few days) So for now, please find them with the tag #rfh kinktober and when the month is over I'll make a masterlist. [NEW all month] based on @flightlessangelwings’ Kinktober 2023 Prompt List

[complete works behind the cut ♡]

spoilers: I have a preferred trope/formula that I lean into quite hard (girl falls first; raccoon falls harder) and while I do really love tragic fanfic, I firmly believe rocket's suffered enough of that so it's only happy endings here (even if it takes a minute to get there). Well, more or less, anyway.

Domestic Scenes in Space Travel

reader x rocket fluff, medium-burn?? (at least for Part One), smut. comics-based but you don't need any comics background knowledge to read this - you just need to enjoy fluff + smut + rocket (and be 18 i guess). multiple parts. see notes for summary + warnings.

The Very Boring Adventures of Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl Part One of Domestic Scenes in Space Travel [COMPLETE 5/5 chapters] Summary: In Rocket Raccoon: Grounded (2016) / Issue #3, Rocket asks a stranger on the ferry to "make sure nobody does anything weird" to him while he naps, and the stranger just, like, abandons him while he's sleeping?? get in loser we're gonna fix it Chapter One (The First Visit) Chapter Two (The Second Visit) Chapter Three (The Third Visit) Chapter Four (The Fourth Visit) Chapter Five (The Fifth Visit) complete post - The Very Boring Adventures of Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl

Outer Space Safety & Spaceship Maintenance Training (Ninth Visit) Part Two of Domestic Scenes in Space Travel [Oneshot. COMPLETE 8/21] Sequel to The Very Boring Adventures of Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl [domestic fluff, dirty talk, oral sex - mind the ao3 tags.] Summary: Study Night. or - why study when you can seduce your hot local Space Pilot into oral? When you were a kid, you imagined yourself growing up, working a cool job, living in a cute house, getting a big dog, marrying, and having kids of your own. You've currently got none of those things, but you are getting regularly railed by a raccoon-shaped cosmic adventurer, and he's currently showing you around his spaceship. Which is kinda better than anything you could have dreamed up for yourself. [comics-inspired, though i'm fucking around with timelines/continuity and you really don't need any comics-context to ride this ride] complete post - Outer Space Safety & Spaceship Maintenance Training

Reconnaissance for Beginners: An Instruction Manual (Fourteenth Visit) Part Three of Domestic Scenes in Space Travel [Oneshot. COMPLETE 9/18] [domestic fluff, dirty talk, orgasm delay, bf/gf silliness. - mind the ao3 tags.] Summary: Date Night. in a gesture of true romance, rocket takes you to a dive bar. of all the stories he's shared with you, his favorites are the ones where he gets saved by the space princess. not that he'd tell you that. ˖⁺｡˚⋆˙✧⋆｡°✩☼⋆｡°✩☽︎ loosely based on Rocket (2017): The Blue River Score. domestic bf/gf silliness & fluff. extensive smut. comics-knowledge isn't needed but HIGHLY recommend starting at the beginning of this collection for context (The Very Boring Adventures of Space Pilot & Sweatshirt Girl).

florescence ❀ (a meetgroot)

[WIP: Year 0/5] [mcu-based, slight au, medium-burn, eventual smut circa chapter four. tentative allies to friends to lovers. the middle is angsty but there are only happy endings here. no use of y/n.] Summary: “The only chance we got is to get to the other side of the universe as fast as we can and maybe, just maybe, we'll be able to live full lives before that whack-job ever gets there.” Rocket & Groot leave their friends behind on Knowhere, despite the latter’s protests, and end up hiding out on a nothing-planet (with a non-extradition policy) at the edge of the Shi’ar Galaxy. It was the flowers that drew you in.

Chapter 1/6 Year Zero: Seed [NEW posted 9/24]

Blackmail Material

[WIP: Chapter 2/4] reader x rocket pwp with feelings; smut & fluff & love confessions. MCU-based, post-Endgame, friends-to-lovers. Summary: a classic tale of "this fuckin raccoon found your sex-toy." as per usual: girl falls first; raccoon falls harder. see notes for summary + warnings.

Chapter One: Blackmail Material Chapter Two: Self-Sufficience [NEW posted 8/29] Chapter Three: Firearms over Flowers ???

Window Across the Galaxy

[WIP: Chapter 15/25+] [NEW chapter posted 10/5] rocket x oc angst/hurt/comfort; slow burn + eventual smut with feelings. MCU-based. slight AU starting pre-GOTG volume 1. enemies to friends to lovers but only one of these idiots thinks they're enemies. see notes for summary + warnings. could become 1 part of a 2-part series, if I have the energy/inspiration. Summary: Rocket is captured by a Ravager crew hoping to get rich off the excessively large bounty on his head. Throwing a wrench in everyone’s plans is the Terran girl they hired to do some freelance assessing on a recent haul of goods they’ve seized from a Xandaran luxury liner. Oops.

Chapter I. A Delicacy. in which our reluctant heroes meet atop a crate of Sovereign porn in the bowels of a Ravager ship. Chapter II. Monster For A Pet. in which one hero wrestles with his inner Groot, and the other is quite possibly a moron. Chapter III. A Kindness.in which Rocket gets in his own damn way: not for the first time, and certainly not for the last. Chapter IV. Got There First. in which our heroes obtain an arsenal and street food. Chapter V. Things No-One Has Said Before. in which one hero refuses to babysit and the other refuses to leave. Chapter VI. Two and a Half Billion Units. in which we lean into the “they were roommates” trope. Jolie has misgivings, while Rocket has fantasies - about getting rich, of course. Chapter VII. I'm Here.in which we visit Knowhere. Chapter VIII. The Care & Feeding of Human Pets.in which our heroes practice breathing and we lean into a new trope: “there was (technically) one bed.” Chapter IX. Scrapmetal and a Dream. in which we redefine homemaking. Chapter X. Thin Fucking Ice. in which our heroes get fucked. Not in the good way. Chapter XI. Let It Be. in which Xandar is saved and good lives are lost. Chapter XII. So Much It Hurts. in which we try not to fuck up the vibes. Chapter XIII. Don’t Wait. in which a lost sister is found and Drax grapples with the concept of sarcasm. Chapter XIV. Exactly Like a Flower. in which comfort is shared. Chapter XV. Galaxy-Breaking Shit. in which more comfort is shared, and life is good. Briefly. [WIP 10/5]

Autopilot Systems Check [Oneshot. COMPLETE 9/3/2023] Est Word Count: 1409 reader x rocket soft fluff & domestica. MCU-based, post-Endgame i guess. Summary: reader wakes up in the middle of the night and rocket is nowhere to be found. drabble based on this post/inadvertent prompt.[complete post - Autopilot Systems Check]

Kinktober 2023

based on day 8 of @flightlessangelwings’ Kinktober 2023 Prompt List Kinktober Day 8: Turbulence. rocket needs you to hold. flarkin. still. [NEW 10/8]

Other Duties As Assigned

[WIP: ???] rocket x oc email romance/LDR (lol); slow burn + probable smut with feelings. Begins five months after The Snap. I don't have an intended outcome for this fic yet (just kind of rambling around) so this has the most uncertain publishing date. Summary: Natasha Romanoff is an administrative nightmare - a fact that does not go unnoticed by the (interim) captain of the Milano. First she demands that the remaining two Guardians of the Galaxy be reachable via a primitive Terran messaging system, and then she can't be bothered to read the frickin' emails. Thank fuck she's hired a new assistant.

Headcannons & Drabbles headcanon 1 - rocket & sex work headcanon 2 - rocket & occassional post-sex feelings headcanon 3 - quill & innocence/optimism headcanon 4 (minific/drabble) - rocket & nebula (2014) in endgame/post time-heist headcanon 5 (minific/drabble) - rocket & quill were scooped at the same time headcanon 6 - cinnamon roll peter quill continued headcanon 7 - rocket & nova corps headcanon 8 - rocket, lylla, & drax [NEW posted 9/17] headcanon 9 - dad glasses [NEW posted 9/21]

Fan Art of Your Amazing OCs (and maybe sometimes mine)

Rose (@love-for-faeries-go-burrrr ) & Moon (@glow-autumz) Thank you for letting me draw these two lovelies. You know I headcanon them as interdimensional besties ♡

Brita (@pretty-chips) is such a pure, delightfully fun character with record-store-clerk vibes. Thank you for letting me draw her. She is a glowing sunbeam-soul. ♡ another Brita wearing a terran t-shirt gifted to her by my oc, Jolie Spinner

Moon (@glow-autumz) Thank you again for letting me illustrate some of Moon's rad powers. i am OBSESSED. I appreciate so much you bringing her to life!

Chérie (Cherry) (@aliasrocket) I have a crush. 10/10 would attempt to flirt with (badly). Thank you so much for creating her and letting me doodle her!

Jolie (Window Across the Galaxy) - my gremlin child. just some scritchy-scratchy character concepts. feel free not to look if you want to imagine Jo in your own way. ♡ the "real" Jolie doodle - refined, finished, && in color

Fleuret (I think?) (@elegant-fleuret) is my personal caffeine deity. i now pray to her for the ability to scrap myself out of bed and deliverance from coffee crashes. she is also the dj of knowhere which is possibly the coolest fucking job in the universe and i would like to be her friend.

Star (@cleo-is-babygirl) is a pure fluffy little sundrop and a brilliant self-taught medic/surgeon. she is also the first tanuki/anthropomorphic animal i have drawn other than rocket so i was very nervous but i did my best. thank you for letting me try something new and expand my experience, friend!

Juno (@lazarel-3000) is one of my favorite OCs ever. she is everything. i want to be her && i want to date her (unfortunately she only has eyes for rocket).

#this fuckin raccoon #rocket raccoon #rocket raccoon fanfiction #rocket racoon x reader #gotg rocket #rocket raccoon x oc #rocket raccoon x you #reader insert #gotg fanfiction #guardians of the galaxy #rocket x you #fanfiction #ao3 writer #ao3 fanfic #rocket fanfiction #fanfiction masterlist #rocket raccoon fanart #original character #raccoonfallsharder fanfic #rfh fanfic

[mthollowell-writes]

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thanks again to @digital-chance for the tag! You can find their original post here!

1)What motivates you to write?

My own ego (I kid...sorta).

I love creating worlds and giving life to the various voices inside my head. I love teasing out ideas and constructing (too) intricate plots and scenarios. Writing is my escape from the daily grind (for good and bad) and my main outlet for expression. I honestly wouldn't be me without my writing.

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I'll share something from a short story currently on ice until I get around to editing it. It's tentatively called "Cosmic Self-Serve"

Unfathomable eldritch horrors weren’t on my Tuesday night bingo card but it takes all types to keep a gas station in the black. I took another pack of gum from the rack and popped a stick in my mouth, praying for brain freeze. Cool mint took over my senses and I felt like a person again. Gary won’t be happy with my lack of respect for “stock integrity” but that’s why our corporate gods gave us shrink. Also Gary’s an asshole so screw Gary.

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

I'm going to have to give this to September from my Festival Project WIP. He's such a mess of a character despite his best efforts to keep it together. He has a pretty lengthy backstory for "reasons that drift a smidge into spoiler territory." On the surface, he's calm and collected and can weather any storm with clear head, but that comes from a long history of battling demons (both real and internal). He currently puts these talents towards being the Editor in Chief at his newspaper office.

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

The initial brainstorming and outlining stage. I love plotting out stories free from the expectation of making the words sound pretty. I do still enjoy making the words pretty but sometimes I stall getting too caught up in that.

5) What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

The dialogue, though I will be the first to admit that I can get carried away with it. I also credit myself as a very meticulous plotter, in the actual plot and with character backstories. I've been told that my shorter stories tend to subvert expectation and go in unexpected places (but this too has its pitfalls as my earlier writing has been labelled as confusing by certain peers in writing workshops).

Even when I'm trying to stroke my ego, I keep offering caveats.

6) What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

Honestly, how supportive everyone is! We're always trying to build each other up and the discussions I see on my feed where people excitedly talk about their stories and OCs remind me why writing is so much fun. And the games, of course. My god, these games! I love them!

7) A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

I recently took the plunge and bought Scrivener and I'm liking it so far. It's a bit of a learning curve with all the features you can play with, but I love how you can organize stories and bookmark things within each text section for referencing. Best of all, (and as far as I'm aware) you only have to pay once for it (unlike some other subscription based programs). With that being said, I do love Microsoft Word for smaller projects and its backup feature.

I also use a timer on my computer (I have Windows so there's a clock app that you can adjust). On days that I'm really struggling to motivate myself, dividing my time into smaller increments can get me through the slog.

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

Egad, what a broad question! I have to think about that for a second...

There's a unique Protestant-inspired church branch within Hollow Grove that's known as the Edelhaus Coalition Church. It's also uniquely American, whose foundation is the old Puritan work ethic that emphasizes hard work as a core tenet that guarantees a path to heaven.

Where it diverges is its belief in The Founder and the concept of The Faithful. The Faithful are the true believers that have gained immense favor with God through their hard work and aptitude. As evidence of his favor, he gives The Faithful powers over nature. The Founder (who many believe was the original historical founder of the town, Goodwin Hollow) was the first Faithful and every Festival of Shadows, the evidence of his will is seen in the resurrection of the recently deceased every festival year. This holiday is celebrated by all in the Edelhaus Coalition church for this reason. It's also why many acolytes within the church opt for natural burial for a chance to walk the earth again.

There's more to it but in the spirit of brevity, that's all I'll say for now.

9) What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

I'll say it again, write what you love. There's no point in writing something you don't.

I also want to emphasize the importance of breaks. Sometimes if the words aren't flowing (or there's just so much going in your life), never feel ashamed of putting the pen down and coming back to a story later. The time away can offer fresh perspective. It can divert your attention to something else that you're equally passionate about. I sometimes like to procrastinate on one story with another. If I can't write at all, sometimes reading or watching something can inspire you.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

I'm truly inspired by reading the snippets of stories from @digital-chance (that's two mentions now!) @rmgrey-author @palebdot @tabswrites @writingbyricochet and @fatexweaver. I appreciate the support and interactions I've had with @vintagecivet @macabremoons @friendlyshaped @aestatismors @leisoree @words-after-midnight @axl-ul @nai-nty-8 and @nonsenseramble. Seriously, you all rock and I appreciate all of you!

I'm going to go ahead and gently tag all these beautiful folks listed above as well as some newer mutuals who I hope to get to know more @girlfromthecrypt @elhuei @isherwoodj @poemsbymo @robin-writes-a-lot and anyone who would like to participate!

#tag games #tagged #writer's q&a tag #long post #mt writes #writeblr #festival project #cosmic wip

[justatalkingface]

On 379

Alright, I don't usually react to just a chapter, but there's something about this one I want to talk about a bit. Spoilers, obviously.

So, the thing is? On the face of it, this... actually is an answer to all my annoyances about how they dropped Shigaraki. To the point where I've seen posts saying that this chapter is an answer to those people critical about how Shigaraki's story is going; not directed at me, obviously (I'm still probably pretty much an unknown outside of the bnha/mha critical tags, lol), but still.

Outside of all my general problems that have basiclly just happened (which we'll get to in a sec), the thing is that... it really doesn't. In theory, it does, the general formula is there, but Shigaraki's build up as a villain was so fucked up that just... dropping him back in there, surprise, as the villain just is... bad. Shigaraki has spent most of the story being dangerous only because of his Quirk, but beyond that being basiclly impotent because of how much of a manchild he was. They finally, finally, started to... I want to say 'redeem' him, but that's completely the wrong implications there... validate him, maybe? Validate him, as a villain, as a big danger, as this enormous threat for Izuku to rise and face. And that actually was going well... until AFO burst in like the Kool-aid man, and then we were just being shown Shigaraki/Tenko in a more positive light, as a victim to be saved.

And... that was honestly deeply fucked up on a lot of levels, how we were being indirectly told about how sad the actual mass murderer was, not even in his past but right now at this present point in time, and pretty much every time he was on screen, but that's not the problem with this chapter.

The problem with this chapter, is, after finally building up Shigaraki, only to suddenly swerve to saving him from AFO, only to suddenly swerve again back towards him surpassing his mentor (again. Because we literally did this in the War Arc, which was great until it was completely invalidated) and being the Big Bad Threat again (you know, until AFO reasserts control again or something), only for Izuku to again, at the end of the chapter again, say that he'll save the '"you" that was crying!'

(silently marks another tally on the 'Izuku will pull child!Tenko out of Shigaraki' theory)

(also notes the child is apparently Shigaraki's inner genocidal maniac)

(throws away the board and gives up again on trying to guess how this clusterfuck will end)

And I. I just. Am supposed to take this seriously? Am I supposed to care at this point, about Shigaraki as a character, or as anything other than an obstacle for Izuku to oppose? Because this has been so all over the damn place, with so little development on these parts, and how they all are supposed to connect, that it feels nonsensical to me. I mean, fuck, even the scene itself is somewhat incoherent, more flashbacks than anything, which is kind of an impressive fuck up in itself really because, for all the flaws in this story, Hori has been great at drawing these epic, gripping scenes that clearly get the message he wants across to whoever sees it.

Tenko's just a kid we should want to save. Tenko is a murderer. Tenko is Orochimaru who figured out how to extend his own life by means of reincarnation and ended up in MHA by a freak cosmic accident, and is using AFO to experiment with Quirks so he can turn them into jutsus.

Sure! Why not!

It's just so fucking hard to care about this when it's such a mess.

And then, while I'm talking about this, we might as well mention everything else I don't like about this chapter, just to be complete about it.

OFA, for example, is once again proven to be completely incompetent and basiclly a non-threat to any character with a name, even though he's been the theoretical main threat for basiclly the entire arc, and is still probably going to be the big final villain, no matter how much Shigaraki is being hyped at the moment. At this point, the man is more of a joke than anything.

Lady Nagant is back for about five seconds out of nowhere to explain how redeemed she is, putting her life on the line to magically save everyone just in time, which is pure Post War Arc in how sudden and incomplete it is, and again, while her character is super interesting, it's so hard to care when, after maybe one more chapter, we all know her part is basiclly going to be done, with maybe a brief mention of her in the epilogue, and maybe a vision of her behind Izuku along with all his other friends/supporters/allies/people he met one time on the road years ago as he dramatically triumphs over AFO the final battle, probably with Bakugou at his side, fucking sigh.

Obligatory mention of Gentle, who is technically there in the background even though he was really part of last chapter's issues, about how out of nowhere he was with anything about how he's suddenly there, and how so ridiculously OP he suddenly is for no apparent reason, and just everything about that.

And then, one more time just because of how bad it is: "I won't ignore the "you" that was crying!"

Sure, you've killed a lot of people, are actively trying to kill me, and destroy the world and/or society, but somewhere deep inside you there is a small child that is crying, and therefore everything else is irrelevant!

*headdesks and groans into the wood for five straight minutes*

#mha critical #bnha critical

[bugsbenefit]

"where others saw order I saw a straight jacket, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades!" Okay soo, is his whole monologue worthless now? Does he even think any of what he said or is that the mf talking, is there even an Henry anymore? I'm so confused

Where does the grandfathers clock fit in all of this

(everythings spoiler tagged but i'm still putting the rest under a read more so it's easier to scroll past)

i'm genuinely kind of curious how little they seemingly did with it too. specifically things like the grandfather clock are so relevant to the character in s4 it's an odd choice to not give it any significance in the origin story spin off

but i'm still waiting for more leaks, what we have right now is a very bare bones summary of plot beats, so the grandfather clock showing up at Some point is still very much possible. it just doesn't seem to have any major plot importance

regarding the monologue, yeah it really depends on what else we'll get form the play i think. i said yesterday too that i'm not a big fan of them seemingly wanting to lean into giving Henry his powers later on in life via possession because it creates a few problems for the writing of s5. it does solve the Will/Henry situation pretty neatly, it makes sense why they're paralleled that much with this. but it gets a bit odd when you suddenly have this kid where there's Actually something wrong with him (posession/cosmic creature influence) on the show with main characters that are all inherently different (queer, poc, disabilities). that just falls out of line of the ongoing theme

and yeah, it does make the monologue hit significantly less hard. the whole sentiment of feeling trapped by society works well coming from someone who's othered in some way, and being directed at another character that is also othered. if Henry's prime "otherness factor" came from a supernatural encounter it would lose a lot of the potential it had

but again, i don't really want to speak too much on it yet because we only have major plot beats bullet point lists after the first day of pre screening. any nuance about the characters and story beats that aren't part of the main message are still mostly unknown, so i want a clearer picture before i say that i think they picked the weaker option writing wise

with the MF having more active involvement you could also still take the time theme of s4 to s5 to some degree with the monologue, even without it being in the play. aspects like Vecna being able to show Nancy an accurate glimpse into the future with the gates opening implies that, in this case the MF, is in some way not bound by the same time constraints as people. so they could instead turn the monologue into a him Literally seeing/being shown time on a level normal humans don't experience and that being the reason he has such a meta view on it. so i do think they could make the monologue make sense, depending on how they define the MFs relationship to time and space in s5 and what it's relationship/bond to Vecna is actually like (gives them more room to fumble it though since Henry himself experiencing oppression and otherness based on him as a person would make the monologue work better regardless imo)

but yeah, if they really Do want to go the "it was due to MF influences all along" route they're opening up the door to some troubles. like you say, the monologue would lose a lot of it's impact if the Dimension X encounter was really all there was

but well see well see, i'm curious for more leaks to get out

#ask tag #tfs spoilers #the first shadow spoilers #<- tagging this one as both in case someone only has one version muted <3

[starlit-lion]

I posted 7,008 times in 2022

That's 89 more posts than 2021!

7 posts created (0%)

7,001 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@docxie

@stampothy

@pikablob

@winter-changeling

@sharkiethedork

I tagged 216 of my posts in 2022

#ellywick - 56 posts

#bellona - 47 posts

#spoilers - 8 posts

#lion's posts - 6 posts

#noel - 6 posts

#lion's art - 5 posts

#artificer alchemist - 3 posts

#dnd oc - 3 posts

#kid cosmic - 3 posts

#amphibia - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#and i'm gonna try to play that as this thing where its just. hard to tell her no. she helped you out and shined your shoes right off the bat

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Any OC stuff you wanna share right now? 👀👀👀

I was thinking about something about Ellywick I wanted to ramble about a while back ^^; But one thing about her that never really got stated explicitly or explored in a significant way is that Ellywick is like mildly... Whatever the exact opposite of claustrophobic would be. Aka, she’s uncomfortable in spaces that are too open (the term might be Agoraphobia but I think there's a lot of other fears tied into that too? I'd have to do more research). Being a rock gnome, she grew up in burrows that were sized appropriately for gnomes, and even at the university she attended, I think it was still primarily gnomish and still in a borrow-like arrangement well within Ellywick’s comfort zone. Where the last game I played her in started, she had been messing around in Waterdeep for a while prior to the events of the campaign, so she wasn't totally unused to being in larger spaces. But I definitely had her make some quips about everything being 'too big' in the city, and act in a way really consistent with preferring darker, more enclosed spaces. Like, she would prefer to crawl under a table if the party was hanging out in a tavern for any length of time. And whenever sewer encounters came up, I always had her revel in it while the other party members complained. Because despite the smell (which let’s be honest she’s breathing in toxic Alchemical fumes all the time I wonder if she has any sense of smell at all at this point) she was actually just really happy to be underground again. She also just really consistently avoided sleeping in beds, since beds are too large for her and make her feel exposed. At the party's home base she slept under her desk (though that was also swept up in a joke about her being a workaholic). In inns and stuff if she was sharing a room with another party member and it got mentioned, I would usually say that she slept under the bed or some other piece of furniture. I even wanted her to live in the basement of the party's home base, but she ended up taking the attic and shuttering all the windows because the rest of the party wanted the basement to be a wine cellar (and then later a place to hide 500k gold pieces we stole by putting the 'heist' in Waterdeep Dragon heist lol). I worry a lot things got dismissed as ‘just Elly being wacky again!!’ but I actually do have a consistent logic to a lot of her actions when I play her :p

5 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

#4

A weird little alchemist with her weird little lab assistant

8 notes - Posted May 21, 2022

#3

Fanart of Percy de Rolo from @pikablob‘s crossover AU and fic The Coldest Equation! I had a lot of fun helping with this design and drawing it! :D

8 notes - Posted April 19, 2022

#2

Ellywick ‘Asbestos’ Wormwise, Gnome Alchemist

8 notes - Posted February 24, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

My Alchemist’s Homunculus Servant. His name is Silly :)

23 notes - Posted May 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[space-and-galaxies]

I posted 4,715 times in 2022

67 posts created (1%)

4,648 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@delta-fox

@splashtail

@willthecleric

@artykyn

@jazz-penguin

I tagged 216 of my posts in 2022

#stranger things - 17 posts

#the owl house - 15 posts

#stranger things 4 - 11 posts

#byler - 11 posts

#mike wheeler - 10 posts

#bobs burgers spoilers - 6 posts

#luz noceda - 6 posts

#bobs burgers - 6 posts

#will byers - 5 posts

#kings tide - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#like gene and tina probably remind him of his mom too but we can infer from that hat story that louise does the most and its dkofijhdnxfjbds

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

so i just finished season three and mskfdjdhsjfknd THIS SHOW WAS SO AMAZING!!!! 

let me start by saying that i knew there was a twist coming, but i got it wrong. i thought the ppg were working with the biker in black and that they were trying to isolate kid so he could get revenge or something, but what we got WAS SO MUCH BETTER! like, it explained so much!! i thought the first episode didn’t really feel like kid cosmic so them being in a fantasy world made so much sense! and then papa g’s behavior changed from episode one to episode two, i didnt really notice it but it was definitely in the back of my mind and then we find out that he figured out it was fantasy world and he wanted kid to be able to see his parents again and fdjfhdjkfndrfuhn WOW. 

i also really like that they subverted the ‘hero sacrifice’ trope because oh my god when i thought papa g died i started bawling. also also papa g and kid’s relationship is now my favorite of the show, sorry tuna. 

overall a really good season with a very strong finale, its definitely up there in my ranks. i love these characters, i love their development, and i am very sad to see them go but so glad i gave this show a chance. to my followers, if you havent seen this show i HIGHLY recommend it. 

thank you for everything kid cosmic and craig mccracken. it was a wild and wonderful ride. 

73 notes - Posted February 6, 2022

#4

something something mike feels like he loses will every season something something vol2 ending with all the characters losing

91 notes - Posted July 3, 2022

#3

some byler things i noticed in vol 1:

-Mike once again apologizes fairly easily (he doesn’t actually say the words but i still count their second talk in epi4 as an apology). 

-Mike listens to Will’s concerns but not El’s (once he gets out of his own head he’s engaged with Will whereas he just completely brushed El off.) 

-They demonstrate that when they’re on the same page shit gets done. (the van, the phone booth, the pen) (also i just love how Mike clearly thinks of Will as his quote-on-quote second in command). 

-They’re more vulnerable with each other than anyone else (even if it’s not completely vulnerable they’re not having conversations like that with the others).

97 notes - Posted May 28, 2022

#2

ok but louise reminding bob of his mom being one of the reasons theyre so close is actually so sweet

174 notes - Posted July 21, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i just think having a moment between Joyce and Mike where he tells her he likes Will and she’s so supportive and tells him she couldn’t think of anyone better for her son than him would be so sweet actually, and be great juxtaposition to Hopper despising mileven. 

175 notes - Posted May 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[h0nex]

everytime they make a wander reference in kid cosmic i simply

#mr mccracken im so sowwy they cancelled ur show that everyone working on clearly had passion for and also kinda like um #had a huge positive influence on me at a very pivotal point in my teenage developement #and is also just beautiful creative and had an incredible message #but im so so glad you got to make a new one very pog very epic #im having Emotions #not really spoilers for kid cosmic at all so i will not tag but #sorry its cartoons time #time to think so hard about cartoons tm

[c-is-for-circinate]

So uh, would the end of runs count as an escalation of the abuse? Like Ik it's a last resort to stop Zagreus from leaving, but it also shows that he has no qualms with hurting Zag to get what he wants.

I definitely had not yet gotten to the end of a run when you sent this ask, nonny, and I was all set to scold you gently for spoilery stuff, but you were actually trying very hard to be nonspecific and this only pinged as a spoiler because I was already pretty sure how things were going to end anyway.  So good job trying to be vague!  I have now fought through to what is fairly clearly the final boss, and my answer is, categorically, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING YES.

(We are going to just keep putting Hades posts under cuts until they stop being about a parent abusing their kid! I realize this helps nobody on mobile and I am tagging for that purpose but hey, at least I might save someone's dash! I swear I will talk about other things in this game eventually! Until then, once again, CW abuse.)

It’s not even about the violence, entirely.  Like, yes, it’s about the violence--but Hades has shown all along that he has no qualms with hurting Zag (with killing him, over and over again) to get what he wants.  Even if we take most of the enemies we’re facing as general nuisances of the zones we travel through, and not Hades’ doing (and oh, if Hades wanted he could give Zagreus a safe escort through those zones in an instant), there are obstacles put in our way that are obviously and deliberately commanded by Hades to stop us at all costs.  The level bosses, for one.  (Also, remember the Hades voiceovers we get at every ‘survive for 45 seconds’ level?)  He wants us to stop.  He wants us to die, and yes we’ll come back, but he’s still setting his employees to hurt us, so like, that’s very much a thing to begin with.

The fact that he’s willing to take up arms against us and kill us himself probably feels like a big escalation to Hades personally.  What really gets me is the dialogue.  “I have always kept my temper, unlike you.”  Wildly revisionist history, placing all of the blame for what’s about to happen on Zagreus the victim for ‘making me do this’. The absolute disgust and disdain, when he finally gets us.  “I have slain titans, boy.”  He’s spent a lot of time throwing scathing remarks in our general direction, wanting us to bow under them, being blandly sarcastic and self-satisfied and smug, but he's never sounded like that.

Because, before now, he thought we couldn’t do what we set out to do.  He thought our suffering as we tried was its own punishment, and he enjoyed watching that punishment.  He did not watch us fail with the affectionate resignation of a parent watching a child learn a harsh lesson.  He watched us and gloated. 

The thing that infuriates him now is not that we’re trying to do the thing we literally said we were trying to do ninety-eight runs ago at the start of the game.  He could have stopped us from trying at any time.  Hypnos to put us to sleep.  Literal chains.  Had he bothered for five seconds to actually step into the courtyard beyond our room, we could be disarmed and helpless.  But it’s fun for him to watch us fail, and it proves that he’s right about us and how pathetic we are, and it reassures him that he’s right about the universe, that nobody can escape from Hades, that we are stupid and foolish and weak.  What drives him to such absolute fury now is not that we’re trying, but the fact that we’re about to succeed.  We’re going to prove him wrong, prove that he was wrong about how he handled this situation in the first place, and that’s flatly unacceptable. 

There is no interpretation of this fight that does not include Hades wanting us to feel inferior, subjugated, crushed.  It’s not about keeping us in his realm.  It’s about breaking us, for daring to try to escape in the first place.

No matter why he’s doing it.  And let’s get into that for a sec, the “it’s a last resort to stop Zagreus from leaving” bit.  At this point in the game, I don’t know why Hades is so desperate to stop Zag from leaving.  I haven’t found out yet!  Don’t tell me!  Don’t hint about it!  But from where I’m standing, I can see, hmm, five main possibilities?

He is trying to protect Zagreus from something on the surface.

He is trying to protect the world from Zagreus, whose arrival out of hell will destroy something/everything in some magic way that Hades knows about but keeps secret.

Zagreus is actually a prisoner, meant to be chained in the Underworld for crimes he doesn’t remember committing, Tisiphone is right, and we were meant to be as condemned as Sisyphus all along but Hades has been generous.

Hades made it law a long time ago that nobody and nothing escapes the Underworld, and Zagreus cannot be allowed to break that law because nobody breaks Hades’ laws, period.  He could have chosen to make an exception but he did not, so all of this is flagrantly illegal and needs to be punished.

Hades himself is trapped in the Underworld, or at least feels that way, and is projecting and taking it out on his kid.

My best guess is that it’s some combination of a few of those (like, I am fairly sure that #5 is absolutely true no matter what other reasons are in place as well).  Thing is?  While I’m curious about this mystery for the story’s sake, I also really fundamentally do not care.

Any one of these things could better have been accomplished by telling Zagreus literally anything.  Even if there’s magic and prophecy bullshit binding Hades away from explaining the whole truth, it is not hard to hint at vague disaster befalling innocent bystanders “because of cosmic reasons I am beholden to keep secret”.  Hell, Hades’ own life becomes easier if he restrains himself just the tiniest bit in an effort to make Zagreus not want to leave in the first place.  Hades clearly does not want this to be happening!  He doesn’t seem to regret any of his actions, but he sure is annoyed and infuriated that he has to go through the trouble of doing them.  Literally one explanation could solve so much.

If the reason is to protect Zagreus?  Then it is one thousand times bullshit, and I think the game knows that.  (The game has to know that.)  When your kid is so miserable that they’d rather flee straight into traffic to escape you, then your kid is not safe.  Nothing that could hurt him on the surface--finding out that Persephone doesn’t love him and never did and in fact wants him dead and tortured for eternity--is any worse than what he’s facing down here.  He already knows one parent feels that way.  At least out of the Underworld he has the option to find some relatives who don’t.

And yet this situation doesn’t ping the “stupid plot that could never happen because it entirely rests on unrealistically shitty communication” sensors.  Because it absolutely, categorically makes sense for the Hades we’ve come to know to refuse to explain himself.  Whether he’s got good reasons or bad ones, HIS WORD IS LAW, and how dare anybody ask him to justify or clarify it, ever.

I am very very sure that Hades has lots of reasons: reasons for being furious, and bitter, and for making rules about his son never leaving the Underworld, and for being so desperate to enforce those rules, and for all of it.  Some of them may even be good.  What makes him an abuser, what those reasons do not and cannot justify, is the verbal and physical violence he uses against the people in his care to cope with those problems.

#asked and answered #cw abuse #LIKE VERY CW ABUSE #hades game #hades spoilers #C plays stuff #I swear to GOD at some point I will talk about other stuff with this game #it does such interesting things with Greek mythology! #it is SO COOL how they use the metastructure of a roguelike #as an ENHANCEMENT of the story they want to tell #so that game dynamics and story elements are one and the same #there is so much to say #but #we are back here again #because apparently this is just where my brain lives rn #it's REALLY COMPELLING ok #Anonymous

[homestuckinthebutt]

Greetings traveller! my name is Rain & I am an artist who loves cartoons and animation

⭐

I post really whatever i feel like here but expect to mostly see memes, animals, art, cute things, fandoms, etc

If you like my content, you should alsofollow my boyfriend's account @dannyboy1334

Yes, my url does sound dirty but my content is not. IF anything on this account is NSFW, it is purely only artistic nudity or just a goofy meme, and besides i will always tag it in case that's something you still don't want to see.

Here's some media that I enjoy:

Ninjago,Homestuck, Hiveswap, Undertale, Deltarune, Svtfoe, Tangled the series, She ra, Over the Garden Wall, Camp Camp, Steven Universe, The Dragon Prince, Adventure Time, The Umbrella Academy, Night in the Woods, Stranger things, Beastars, Series of Unfortunate Events, Bojack Horseman, Tales of Arcadia (Trollhunters, 3below, Wizards), Gravity falls. Animaniacs, Good Omens, The Owl House, Spongebob, Final Space, Infinity Train, Clone high, Helluva boss, Hazbin hotel, Carebears, Bob's Burgers, Phineas and Ferb, Monster high, Tuca & Birdie, Kid Cosmic, Astro Boy, The Addams family, Castlevania, AtLA, Critical Role, Metal Family, Maya and the Three, Centaurworld, Amphibia, Breaking Bad, Dead End: Paranormal Park, Vox Machina, Welcome Home, The Amazing Digital Circus, Trolls, Unicorn warriors eternal aaand whatever else i can't think of rn >m<

Other content i like but i haven't finished yet (not worried about spoilers) include: the ghost of Molly McGee, DuckTales, miraculous ladybug

Other interests include:

Sky: CotL, Minecraft, Animal crossing, FNaF, musicals, YouTubers, and widely various music genres and artists

So if any of that sounds cool, consider following me! I'm very nice i promise

Here's some art of mine also! I work with all kinds of mediums :) (the art tag is # sheepbundraws

https://sheepbunny.carrd.co/

(here is a caard that links to my other social media! Take care!

[weyesthisisthebreadstore]

I posted 10,766 times in 2021

25 posts created (0%)

10741 posts reblogged (100%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 429.6 posts.

I added 51 tags in 2021

#centaurworld - 15 posts

#centaurworld spoilers - 8 posts

#wammawink - 5 posts

#discworld - 4 posts

#one piece - 4 posts

#adventure time - 3 posts

#glendale - 3 posts

#disney - 3 posts

#amphibia - 3 posts

#cruella - 3 posts

Longest Tag: 130 characters

#this all could of been avoided if elktaurboy would of accepted the fact that mysterious woman was a lot more open than he realized

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Ok folks, so I’ve been having a thought again, and from what i’ve seen of fics around Centaurworld(which isn’t a whole lot but it’s growing), why has no one written a fic of the immediate moments after Waterbaby and Ryder leave together to go back to the General??? Like, the awkward silences, the long pauses, the tone clashing between Waterbaby and Ryder’s world!! Wouldn’t that be just hilarious to read?? I even have an idea about how it would go. If any one wants to know.

22 notes • Posted 2021-09-15 17:26:10 GMT

#4

See the full post

28 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 17:01:25 GMT

#3

We really ought to get kid cosmic trending on here, otherwise, this show will never get the recognition that it so rightfully deserves.

52 notes • Posted 2021-03-10 00:20:41 GMT

#2

Can I say again how much I love centaurworld? Especially episode 8 where Wammawink is publicly kink-shamed for having a merman fetish

56 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 16:34:42 GMT

#1

See the full post

96 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 17:04:36 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

#my 2021 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

[verobatto]

TFW: Keep Fighting for the Second Chance

TFW meta. Meta spec. 15x18 meta

Hello again, gah, i can't stop shaking but, i will try to focus on this...

Okay, if you want to read my Destiel meta, i know you do, is in this link.

Now, let's start this...

Billie had a plan B, but TFW will have their second chance

When the first plan didn't work, because the Winchesters decided not to do it, Billie sent "the bomb" to the Empty, because the Empty was one altering the order too, another cosmic creature that could ruin her plans again. She was willing to do whatever was needed to keep things in order, and everyone in their places, where they belong.

But this is again, THE SECOND CHANCE, TFW will have to defeat Chuck, as I repeated in previous analysis and also, will be Dean the one maybe resetting things to defeat the chaotic god, helped by Jack. Why? Because Death said it : YOU ARE STILL USEFUL. After reading the new ending of Chuck, which, Sam couldn't read. Damn.

We regroup

Sam showed again that he is the leader here. The one with the head focused, the one trying to find another way, always researching. So I'm sure he will be the one searching for the second chance against God.

Gif credit @jellydeans

The chat between brothers in which Dean recognized he couldn't stop, when he was with his gun against Sam, was a sign of Chuck's script, but is like using Dean's own desperation and anger against him, a powerful way to make him follow the script.

I feel strange

Gif credit @jellydeans

So beautiful when I saw Castiel talking with his kid. Jack is feeling strange because EVERYTHING IS OVER, THE PLAN, HIS DESTINY. Which I really believe is not truth.

But Castiel comforts his child, 'We care about you because you are you, not because you are useful.' And again, this is like something that thrilled me, why? Because it felt like another foreshadow. Yes. Because I feel these are the words about to come at the end, i really hope Sam and Dean say these words to Cas too.

And why Jack killed a plant without with his touch? It was a parallel to Amara in episode 11x23, remember? She killed flowers. Why is this important to say?

Because Jack has the same powers Amara has. Remember Chuck saying I can't make it without you to his sister? Because she is the only one who can reset the world? Well, hello, Jack can do that too!

So now that everyone is gone, is Jack the one who can save them all, helped by Dean who will press the reset button.

Gas-n-Sip, where angels became humans

Another cute scene was Sam giving something useful to do to his child. Because he can read all over the Nougat Boy's face that sadness and fear. So, let's make this kid drive the car.

As a symbolism of what I think will be the ending, let's Jack to guide us through a new world, to be the new driver. To fulfill his destiny once for all.

And because you only get the Empty if you summon him...

Another clue to my spec about Dean rescuing Cas from the Empty, because we have that spell Nick used to open a gate to the Empty and drag Lucifer out of it. Yes yes, the Destiel dark mirror, was a guide to our future 13x20, when Dean will summon the Empty and rescue his angel.

But also, Death is dead? Whoa, that was unexpected, but, let's see how TFW kill every cosmic evil creature. Heheheh. You are next, Chuck and the Empty!

To Conclude:

I know we are only yelling DESTIEL DESTIEL DESTIEL AND I WANT MY CAS BACK, but there was a little things to talk about now.

The spoilers from next episode shows us an Apocalyptic world, just Sam, Dean and Jack standin, and one dog, but, is the image of devastation , is Chuck's script.

They're gonna have a second chance, as I predicted, and this time the reset of the world ofr a situation will play a pivotal role in the next episode.

And then Dean will rescue Cas in 15x20, but this is not the Destiel meta hahahaah.

Love you all! See you soon!

Tagging @metafest @gneisscastiel @emblue-sparks @magnificent-winged-beast @weird-dorky-little-deana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @dea-stiel @mybonsai1976 @anarchiana @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @destielshipper221b @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @feathered-castiel @bre95611 @zoerayne2426 @justmeand-myinsight @that-one-fandom-chick @proccastinate @studio-hatter @pepevons @poorreputation @mrsaquaman187 @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester @dwstiel @thislunarkiss @ladygon @shippsblog @la-random-fangirl @lets-try-this-again-please @mychemicalobsession514 @destiel-shipper-11

@asphodelesauvage @2musiclover2

Buenos Aires, November 6th 2020 1:24 AM

#tfw #tfw meta #15x18 meta #spn meta #meta spec #spn spoiler #supernatural #jack kline #chuck shurley #dean winchester #castiel #sam winchester #amara #supernatural meta

[skye-huntress]

RWBY V8 Finale “The Final Word” Reactions

Thus concludes the first Volume I get to watch as it airs week by week, and react to it

MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW! SERIOUSLY IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE EPISODE YET AND FOR WHATEVER REASON STILL SEE THIS EVEN WITH THE SPOILER TAG, CONSIDER THIS YOUR LAST WARNING

Sooo, I cannot not talk about this big one first because it gives me personal feelings. Penny is a character that is very precious to me, always has been. I binged the show up to Volume 7 last year so I didn’t have to go through years of new episodes knowing she was gone and then when she came back and throughout Volume 8, she cemented herself as one of my favourites, right up there with Ruby and Weiss. I even warmed up to Frosen Steel. I honestly did not think nor did I want to think that the show would kill her again, even knowing this was going to be a rough volume for her being the central figure in the whole conflict. The only consolation I have is that she died on her own terms.

While we’re on this note, my sympathies to Jaune for having to be the one to send her on her way. My sympathies to a lot of characters because whether or not Nuts and Dolts is platonic or romantic, she was particularly special to Ruby who once again was not there to save her.

Penny finally got her song, and it hurts

I could tell from the beginning that the Ace Ops were overrated. They seemed cool on the surface and as individual fighters they were probably up there, but I’m also sceptical of the ones that everyone (including themselves) called the “best” at anything. The reality is that they were a mess, they told to bury their feelings, and told to always accept their Jimmy’s judgment over even their own. Clover died a meaningless death because he ignored his own better judgment. That said, for Vine, the least expressive of the whole bunch to not only talk Harriet down but make a sacrifice for his team friends was not something I would have called. And yet I remember how he tried to comfort Elm, and how when Marrow was nearly killed how expressive he was in his shock and fear. Honestly, I should know better, as someone who isn’t able to express the full depth of my emotions very well, I should have known that Vine was probably the one who cared for his friends more than they ever realised.

Qrow was actually lucky for once. I have a theory. If Ren’s semblance can evolve from masking emotions to sensing them, maybe Qrow’s semblance could evolve so that he could change his or others’ fortunes for the better and not just for the worst. At the very least, rubbing the pin made him believe he could in fact be lucky, maybe that’s all he needed.

Harriet has a lot of issues to sort through, but maybe now without the toxicity of the military and Jimmy, she and her remaining friends can allow themselves to feel, grieve, heal and grow.

So we have Robyn, Qrow, Harriet, Elm and Marrow on a transport leaving Solitas through conventional travel. They probably can’t fly their transport straight to Vacuo so they may have to make some stops on the way, probably at Argus or Vale.

As for Ironwood, what a fitting end. He always saw himself as the hero of Remnant, the one with all the answers, the one who was always right, and who would save the day. But in the end, he wasn’t anyone even worth killing. To the villains, he was always a joke, someone to be used, and right when he is finally face to face with his greatest enemy, she never even looked at him once. In the end, neither he nor his precious Atlas proved to be very relevant or impressive.

Neo thought she was clever but she was a fool. That’s what happens when you let anger and vengeance consume you, it warps your judgment. Cinder was always using her, to get what she wanted, and as a means to get her own vengeance on Ruby.

Speaking of not letting not letting vengeance consume you, Blake. She saw how close she was to losing everyone else she cared about she switched tacts. I’m proud of her. And she risked the fall to save Ruby, unfortunately this risk was too great for her.

My WhiteRose heart cheered when Weiss went to back up Ruby. I assume Blake knew the partners could assist each other better than she could. It hurt that she had to watch the rest of her team family fall, to be the last one standing, using Gambol Shroud. And then she fell right in front of her sister.

Ruby really needs more practice with her eyes before she faces Cinder again. It was impressive though how she goaded Neo and knocked her over the edge. Unfortunately, there was more than one person there who really wanted her dead.

As for Ruby’s mental state, she never really had time to process anything that had happened, she was in survival mode the entire time. Falling into the same place as Yang did might give her hope that her sister is still alive and if she fell with Blake, all the better, then she won’t be alone. But like I said, Penny was very important to her, and this is the second time she has lost her. Just imagine though, if Penny’s body falls into the void with them and Ruby finds it, that’d be all the worse than just hearing about it from Weiss or Jaune.

Now, Winter, she is the MVP of this episode. Winter is now the Winter Maiden, not because Ironwood chose her to be or because she actually chose it herself but because Penny chose her. Penny believed in her friend. My love of Penny gives me a lot of conflicting feelings for this and the implications but it was satisfying to see Winter own Ironwood and hold her own against Cinder. And now she is the champion for Atlas’ refugees, but failing Weiss and Penny is going to have a significant impact on her. At least she’ll allow herself to feel and she still has some family left.

Now for the weapons. When Crescent Rose fell, it was like watching an entirely separate character fall as well. Gambol Shroud and Neo’s umbrella fell on their own, too. And Jaune’s weapon that was reforged with Pyrrha’s ruined weapon was destroyed by none other than Cinder. So basically the only ones still completely armed are Weiss and Yang, but of course the latter also has a concussion.

It wasn’t the complete victory she wanted but it was decisive. I figured a victory for Cinder would be getting both relics and she did. But I knew she wouldn’t get the Maiden powers, that’s always the part she fails at again and again. She tries to syphon a Maiden’s magic only to be interrupted. Every. Single. Time. Seriously, Cinder will just never learn from this mistake and its why she will likely never have more than one Maiden’s power at the rate she is going. But as decisive as this victory was, it will cost her in the long run. She needed help from Jinn, Neo and Watts in order to beat Team RWBY but they’ll come back stronger, smarter and more pissed off and Cinder won’t have all of that help next time. If anything, she might have put herself back on top of Neo’s shitlist.

Watts’ end is also rather fitting and also completely expected. Like Jimmy and Jaques, he represented a lot of what was wrong with Atlas, particularly the elite. How annoyed would Ambrosius be with Cinder though? “More fire, that’s it? This is my cosmic karma for being annoyed about being used by the same kids twice in a row.”

Atlas fell as I always knew it would, after all the relics exist to help humanity and a flying city did nothing but fuelled the egos of those who lived on that floating rock. Mantle was something to be proud of, but Atlas was a lie. Now Remnant’s “greatest kingdom in the world” reduced to ruin and it’s people refugees in a land their ancestors made a wasteland. This will have dire consequences.

So in the end, no help came for Atlas. Not surprising in retrospect. Atlesians didn’t have the best reputation to begin with, then Ironwood made a series of terrible decisions (that everyone around him strongly advised against), destroying Atlas’ relations with the other Kingdoms. Then came Ruby’s broadcast out of nowhere where she dropped some insane bombshells and then her message was cut off and global comms went down again. Few can vouch for Ruby’s character and even fewer can verify anything of what she said. I still believe it had an impact and we’ll see it as we visit other Kingdoms again, but the full pay off won’t be for quite some time. As I said before, the message was just the first of many, many small steps to uniting the world against Salem

So now for the detour, and that cursed image of Crescent Rose alone, slammed into the ground. It’s likely Volume 9 will focus mostly on our girls, Jaune and Neo, surviving in this strange environment and finding a way home.

Was that everything? Probably not. Now the mourning period begins as I try to process all of that.

#rwby #rwby8 #rwby8 spoilers

[alfvaen]

Okay, so I have literally never posted on tumblr before (well, one post on a different blog but it’s all abandoned now so whatever); I’ve been using it to read but I still never really got the hang of it so whatever.  But I am a sucker for certain types of memes, and what somebody called an Ask Box Game, seen chez @lianabrooks and unspecifically tagged.  So let me actually my personality a bit.

Favourite colour: Purple, I guess. It doesn’t define my identity that much, and it’s not like I can ever find clothes in this colour, but yeah, purple.

Last song / album: Ha. So I am nearly constantly listening to music and almost as constantly buying music, so it depends what you mean.  Last song I listened to was part of my chronological relisten (currently I am up to 1987), “Cool Love (Cooler Remix)” by Alta Moda.  Last full album I listened to was “Haven’t Got The Blues (Yet)” by Loudon Wainwright III (2014), which I just bought a few days ago.  But the most recent album I bought looks like it was “Cosmic Wheels” by Donovan off of eMusic, I haven’t processed it yet so it’s not in my library.

Last movie: “The Prestige”, which I watched on Disney+ on Sunday night (while my wife is out of town).  I’d never seen it before, but I knew a few things about it, including one of the major spoilers.  It was pretty good.

Currently Reading: Yesterday I finished a reread of “With A Tangled Skein” by Piers Anthony (I haven’t reread that series in, like, decades, and I’m not sure how it’s holding up now), also finished Alison Bechdel’s “The Essential Dykes To Watch Out For” (from the library; I’d only heard of the Bechdel Test, I had no idea she had a long-running comic.  As an allocishet guy I found it really interesting, though in the W Bush years it seemed to get a little strident--perfectly understandable but not as fun to read).  I’m also reading some comics on Marvel Unlimited, going past where I stopped in my teen years; I’m up to December 1991, just finished the original Infinity Gauntlet series.  And today I’ll be starting a read of “Wool” by Hugh Howey, which I downloaded as a free ebook at some point.  (ETA: Oh, yeah, and I had started Ed Yong’s “I Contain Multitudes”, a nonfiction book about bacteria, before I got library books a while ago, so now I’ll be getting back to it.)

Currently Watching: A few weeks ago my eldest son was craving a rewatch of the “Planet Earth” documentary series, so he got it from the library.  I was only really interested in a couple of the episodes, and last night I joined all three kids for the Deep Ocean episode.  (I am fascinated by ocean creatures though in general I find the ocean extremely disturbing and if I ever fell into it I would probably die.)  Meanwhile I have been cycling through a number of shows, a few episodes/one disc at a time, and am currently rewatching the first disc of Season Two of “Friends”.

Currently Craving: I’ve been playing a Europa Universalis IV game with the Extended Timeline mod (so you start back in like 48 AD instead of the 1400s), where, as my wont, I cheat to give myself free money and rapid technological advancement and see how it takes to colonize/conquer the world.  This time I started as the Visayan Empire in the Philippines and just entered the 9th century; I have conquered Asia up to about the middle of India, have discovered cannons, have pretty much explored the entirety of the world’s oceans and coastlines, and am just starting to colonize Africa; haven’t actually started on the Americas yet.  So what I am craving is: playing more of that.  Instead I have to work today.

Coffee or Tea: Tea.  I rarely bother to make it for myself, but I will drink it; I never drink coffee.

TAGGING: I don’t know that anyone who’s not a sexbot is following me, so if you see this consider yourself tagged.

#friends #ask box game #eu4 #alison bechdel #hugh howey #prestige #alta moda #loudon wainwright iii #planet earth

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 3 of 26

Title: Acceptance (The Southern Reach #3) (2014) - REREAD

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre/Tags: Horror, Science Fiction, Ecological Horror, Cosmic Horror, Weird, First-Person, Second-Person, Third-Person, Unreliable Narrator, Female Protagonists, LGBT Protagonist

Rating: 10/10

Date Began: 1/11/2021

Date Finished: 1/20/2021

Area X, a self-aware wilderness along the coast, has existed for decades behind a mysterious border. The landscape itself annihilates humans and repurposes them for its own ends. Hundreds of people have died attempting to uncover its secrets. But no one has yet discovered its origins or true purpose.

Now, Area X has spread past its former borders, perhaps to the entire world. Acceptance follows several key figures through the history of Area X, and their attempts to fight against an impossible threat.  

You feel numb and you feel broken, but there’s a strange relief mixed in with the regret: to come such a long way, to come to a halt here, without knowing how it will turn out, and yet... to rest. To come to rest. Finally. All your plans back at the Southern Reach, the agonizing and constant fear of failure or worse, the price of that... all of it leaking out into the sand beside you in gritty red pearls. 

Full review, major spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Extreme body horror, altered states of mind, and psychological manipulation, including hypnosis. Several characters lose their sanity, and you see it happen in real time from their perspective. Intentional self-harm/mutilation as a plot point. Some violence and gore. There are brief references to animal abuse and terminal cancer. Not many happy endings in this one.  

This review contains major series spoilers. It’s also super long, as the book covers a lot of material. 

Acceptance is the most narratively ambitious book in the Southern Reach trilogy. While Annihilation and Authority feature a single protagonist/perspective, this one has four rotating POVs and one guest narrator partway through the book. It also covers a broader timeline than previous entries, from the origins of Area X 30-ish years ago to the ongoing present-day apocalypse. Acceptance is one of the few books I've read that utilizes first-, second-, AND third-person narration in a single volume, adopting whichever one makes the most sense for the character and their situation

While this sounds complicated, it's basically just a way to tell four different stories at the same time. VanderMeer also uses each storyline to address the major questions of the series. How did Area X come to be? What happened to the biologist? What was the former director of the Southern Reach trying to accomplish? And perhaps most pressing-- what is the fate of the world now that Area X has spread? Not everything is resolved, but it's definitely a conclusion.

The stories have some unifying connections, containing similar themes and callbacks/references to each other. However, for the purposes of this review I will be looking at each story and protagonist individually.

First up is Saul Evans the lighthouse keeper. He's been mentioned before, but never in much detail. Going in, we know a few things-- (1) he knew the director/Cynthia when she was a child and (2) something happened to him that turned him into the Crawler, the eldritch creature which writes the sermon on the walls of the tower in Area X. In Acceptance, we learn he's a former preacher who had a crisis of faith and left his old life, taking up the role of lighthouse keeper on the forgotten coast. It's implied this is partially due to him realizing he's gay and fleeing the resulting homophobic fallout. His past vocation explains the elevated, sermonic language of the words in the tower.

From the onset Saul is an intensely likeable character. He's trying to build a happier and more genuine life for himself. This part probably takes place during the 70s or 80s, but he's cautiously optimistic about his new life with a local fisherman named Charlie. He also forms an unlikely friendship with Gloria (aka Cynthia), a local kid who loves exploring the coast. However, he is tormented by the "Séance and Science Brigade", a shady organization that investigates/worships(?) paranormal phenomena. They sabotage the lighthouse beacon, which we learned in Authority is a marvelous piece of technology with a mysterious history. Shortly after, Saul accidentally absorbs a fragment of the beacon into himself, and shit goes downhill real fast.

While the catalyst of Area X may seem a little weird, the reader can piece together that part of the beacon has extraterrestrial origins, and Saul unintentionally activates part of it. The gradual shift from a normal life to something deeply unsettling has its appeal. I especially like seeing his logs/journal entries and how they devolve as proto-Area X overtakes his mind. The disturbing bar scene near the end is great as well. We know going in that this story has a bad ending (from a human perspective), but learning specifics about Saul as a person gives this more impact. Saul's is a sad tale of a man who wants to make a better life for himself and gets screwed over by bad luck.

Cynthia/Gloria/the former director is the next perspective character. In Annihilation she serves as the antagonist, but in Authority we learn it isn't that simple. She had ulterior motives, handpicking the biologist for the expedition in order to use her as a weapon against Area X. And, of course, we learn she was the little girl in that old picture of Saul, which means she probably grew up there before the border came down. 

This part opens with Cynthia/Gloria's death as "the psychologist" in Annihilation, but told from her perspective. From there, the pacing is a little slow, in similar style to Authority. We learn how Cynthia lived her daily life, how she infiltrated the Southern Reach, and her interpersonal relationships with Grace, Whitby, and Lowry. However, her storyline ramps up when detailing Area X and the lead up to twelfth expedition. Lots of old scenes/dynamics from Annihilation hit different with the new context. Especially interesting is the interview between Cynthia and the biologist; turns out there was a lot more context that the biologist obscured in her story. On some level we already knew she was an unreliable narrator, but it's fun to have it pop up again in a different book entirely.

I admire how VanderMeer makes someone who comes off as a throwaway villain into the one of the most complex, important characters in the series. This part is also really cool as it's written in second-person perspective, and the story justification for this (Area X examining her memories) is neat. While I like Cynthia's characterization in this part, the additional bits in Saul's story and his interactions with Gloria add helpful context and emotional impact. The end of the book being her letter to Saul is so damn sad.

The third main storyline follows Control and Ghost Bird in the "current" timeline-- exploring Area X in the immediate fallout of Authority. I love this part for several reasons. The contrast between the two leads and how they perceive themselves, Area X, and the current situation is great. Control is very much losing control, feeling "the brightness" taking over (a callback to Annihilation). Meanwhile, Ghost Bird is in her element, seeing and experiencing things the regular human characters do not. There's the sense that she's truly something "new" in terms of both humanity and Area X.

We also learn a ton of stuff about Area X that is hinted in earlier volumes but confirmed in Acceptance. (MAJOR SPOILERS) The first is that Area X isn't on Earth at all; something briefly hinted at in Annihilation, when the biologist doesn't recognize the stars in the sky.  Instead it mimics Earth, or something representative of it. The second big thing is that time works differently here. The uncanny state of decay noted in earlier books isn't actually a direct result of Area X. It's just the passage of time, because way more time passes in Area X compared to the "real" world.

The guest narrator/story is told within the Control/Ghost Bird storyline. The two meet up with Grace, who has managed to survive the Area X attack on the Southern Reach. She took shelter on the mysterious northern island and discovered an old journal written by... the biologist from Annihilation, which details what happened to her over the last THIRTY YEARS (yeah, the time thing) until she finally decided to give into Area X.

This section is sobering and sad; basically a glimpse at how the biologist's isolation slowly made her go mad. She finds an owl (hello cover) that she believes is her husband post Area X conversion and the two live together for decades. When it dies, the biologist loses the will to keep fighting Area X. It's ambiguous if the owl really is her husband, or if she's just projecting, but her heartbreak at the end is probably the strongest emotion she shows in the series. But what is interesting about this part is it confirms a cool detail. Injury and pain can halt the progression of "the brightness" within someone. Which is how the biologist managed to survive 30 years, how Grace survived what turns out to be 3 years, and so on. Even more interesting, when someone DOES finally succumb after warding off the brightness this way, they turn into something more strange and alien. Hence the moaning creature, and Saul/the Crawler. It's also probably why some creatures have incongruencies, like the dolphins with human eyes.

The biologist? She transformed into a giant, oceanic eldritch abomination COVERED in eyes. Just primo aesthetic. We get to see her from both Ghost Bird and Control's perspectives. Ghost Bird feels solidarity and a sort of euphoria meeting her alternate self. Control... basically breaks in the face of something like that, full cosmic horror style. Again, the contrast here is really appealing to me.

Both of their story arcs end in a way that is narratively satisfying, though the ending is open. The future seems hopeful in a bittersweet way, but presumably Area X has destroyed humanity as we know it. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your perspective and is a central thesis of the series.

So, I said I'd discuss how this series approaches aliens. While there's an appeal to anthropomorphic alien species one can talk to and communicate with, I think an "unknowable" perspective is more realistic. After all, who's to say alien life formed under similar conditions or has any resemblance to our own? The extraterrestrial element in The Southern Reach is very much this type. But it's a fine line to walk in fiction, because handwaving the weird alien stuff as impossible to comprehend (and thus conveniently ducking any responsibility for explaining it) is lazy writing when done wrong.

The thing I find interesting about this series is the human characters understand lots of the what of the alien elements, but not the why. For example, Area X transforms humans into various plants and animals. We know it instills a sense of "brightness" in humans exposed for too long, which encourages assimilation into itself. Humans infected in this way, even if horrified or resistant, have thoughts of this being inevitable, even a good thing. The biologist takes samples in Annihilation and finds several plants and animals have human cells. Control logically knows what Area X does to people, but he is ultimately helpless to resist the process when he experiences it firsthand.

As for the why of it all... we don't really know! There's multiple ideas presented throughout the story. Ghost Bird probably gets closest to the "truth"; that Area X is part of a machine organism from a dead alien civilization, and that it has a bizarre effect on Earth's biology based on its now defunct programming. Other worlds would have their own Area Xes based on this idea, as it's implied the Earth version is just one piece of many. But it's worth noting that Ghost Bird is a creation of Area X and sees things differently than the other characters. Unreliable narration is ironically consistent through the series. So it's hard to say if this is true or not; perhaps it's silly to think any explanation would be understandable to a human mind. Obsession with finding the answer is a recurring theme that drives characters insane. I think this is an interesting compromise when discussing the unknowable; to have some facts and theories but not necessarily a concrete answer. 

If I have a criticism for this book, it's the role of the "Séance and Science Brigade", especially in Saul's storyline. While they're set up earlier in the series, we only really see them in this book. Our limited perspective via Saul leaves a lot of ambiguity as to their purpose, function, and goals. There's an implication that Control's family influenced the organization's decision to sabotage the beacon and create Area X. But I consider the subplot with Control's mom/grandfather to be one of the weaker ones in the series, and this book didn't help. The S&SB comes off as campy and ineffectual, which is perhaps intentional? But since they're narratively the fanatics who caused Area X to happen, I really wish they felt more sinister and impactful. There's some attempt to make them scary, but it's not very convincing when compared to Area X. Kind of like a Saturday morning cartoon villain vs the unknowable cosmic horror of the universe. This is a nitpick, though.

While rereading the series, I discovered there's a planned fourth book which may or may not star a minor character from Saul's story. I'm interested to see what else there is to explore about Area X and the Southern Reach. As it stands, I still really like this series. Between the horror and general weirdness, it's not for everyone, but it sure does appeal to me. I think this is one of those series that you'll either adore or hate. Obviously I recommend it.

#taylor reads #2021 reading challenge #10/10 #long review lmao

[peacensafety]

This is everything about WandaVision up to Episode 5, with most of it concentrating on Episode 5. I have seen Episode 6 at this point, but I will respect the one week spoilers rule that is part of Nerd Culture.

:read more:

First of all, some basics about this series. This is an homage to different American sitcoms. Why American sitcoms when the main character is Sokovian? No one knows.

In the comic books, Wanda Maximoff is a mutant, not a science experiment like in the MCU. She and Pietro are the twin children of a Mutant named Magneto and a human named Magda (who is sometimes a Romini, and originally from Transia). Magneto is referred to as an Omega level mutant. Wanda is born with mutations, able to control Hex Powers, which is whatever the comic book writer needed to move the plot along. Sometimes her original powers have to do with probability, but like, 30 years ago, they started calling it chaos magic, and then she had extra reception to magical powers, and basically, it’s all very vague and ill-defined. She’s like the only one immune to Phoenix powers, and that’s a huge deal. She is not considered an Omega Level Mutant because she does not have completely mastery over her powers, not because she isn’t powerful enough. In the comic book series House of M, she is powerful enough to rewrite the entire universe, that was retconned in The Children’s Crusade, but then her powers are called Mutant Magic in A vs X and she’s got cosmic chaos magic. She’s supposed to serve The High Evolutionary at this point, which has made her more powerful. In the MCU, she was genetically altered by the Mind Stone, one of the six Infinity Stones. So when Wanda, AKA The Scarlet Witch, is in a story you can expect it to be about ridiculous amounts of power.

The assumption that you can make pretty quickly in the series is that Wanda Maximoff is in charge of this alternate reality, and quite possibly created it. Knowing what we know about Wanda, we assume it’s because she broke after the death of Vision and couldn’t deal with that death after the death of her parents (because of the Sokovian civil war) and Pietro, her twin brother, who was killed by Ultron. It’s stated pretty early on that Wanda could have defeated Thanos by herself (this is most likely true, one time in the comic books she decided to remove every mutant power in the known universe and she did for a couple of years. Is she more powerful than Jean Gray? Sit down with some nerds and listen to them argue, because that call will never be settled in a peaceful manner). Wanda has brought back Vision (who was killed by Thanos before he made his wish on the Stones, making him dead dead instead of mostly dead like half of the population of the universe) and in the MCU, this makes almost sense as her powers were given to her by the Mind Stone which brought Vision to life in the first place, with some interference from Tony Stark (Iron Man). In the first couple of episodes, they bring in Billy and Tommy (Speed and Wiccan) and the twins make themselves grow up pretty quickly.

Other characters that come in and play a part are Monica Rambeau (from the Marvel Comic Book Universe and the movie Captain Marvel, who is also the future Captain Marvel), Darcy Lewis (MCU character last seen hanging out with Thor), and Jimmy Woo (another MCU character, an FBI agent in charge of Scott Lang’s house arrest from Ant-Man and the Wasp).

Let’s also talk about some background about where Disney plans to go in the next 5 years. First of all, they have already acquired rights to do an X-Men series. If you have DisneyPlus (which you do unless you’re pirating this series), you know that the X-Men movies have mostly been added to the Marvel Channel rather quietly and unobtrusively. Also, there are rumors that all three movie Spidermen have signed on to the next Spider-Man movie (Toby McGuire, James Garfield, and Tom Holland). Also also, Disney has made a statement that Deadpool will be in the universe pretty soon. So we know that the endgame for Disney is a combination of all of the Marvel Comic book universe.

Things that I have noticed that are fun about this series: all of the commercials are nerd shout outs. The commercials all have something to do with time, with two being blatantly about clocks or innovation. The commercials for the most part have the same two actors in it (are they SWORD agents?). The first is a Stark toaster, which is weird, but okay, and it is the first time we see color (red, maybe an Iron Man shout out?) used in the series. The second is the Strucker watch, a blatant time reference, and Strucker if you recall from the movies is that dude who was experimenting on Wanda and Pietro when they were in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. In the comic books he’s Wolfgang von Strucker, or Baron Strucker, a former Nazi officer and agent of Hydra, and he never ages, and he shows up to try and do a genocide in the books all the time. The third commercial is about taking a break? HydraSoak bath powder. We all get the willies anytime Hydra is mentioned, so relaxing with Hydra is something we don’t want to do. This is also the first time that I think maybe this isn’t all Wanda? Also, this isn’t time appropriate (and this might be an influence from my real world job, and not some intentional message from Marvel) but mixed-race kids on a commercial in the 70s? That would have never happened. Are things starting to unravel, because this would have been super weird at that time and Marvel has been strict about time appropriateness so far, even so far as including gender roles. The last commercial is Lagos, the paper towel commercial. Paper towels are about cleaning up, right? Because these folks in the commercial spill everything. Also, we see the first incident of gender roles not being respected in WandaVision, because we see a dude wipe up his own spill. Anyway, Lagos is that Nigerian city where Wanda killed a bunch of people, including the King of Wakanda, on accident in Captain America: Civil War.

So in episode 2, SWORD is teased with the little logo on the beekeeper’s outfit at the end of the episode when he comes out of the sewer. The group outside Westview is verified to be SWORD in episode 4. Let’s talk about them a bit. These dudes in the comic books were all about space and going into space and doing space things, but then Thanos does a snappy thing. After the snappy thing (and this series is set 5 years after the Snap) they start doing nanotech and AI. In the comics Maria Rambeau is in charge, and after she dies, dude named Tyler Hayward takes over. Watch Tyler Hayward. I personally do not think he is actually Tyler Hayward, and if someone is acting and looking like someone else, we know which villain has probably just inserted himself into the show (if you’ve been watching the interviews, Tom Hiddleston shows up as a call-in fan of the show and demands to know why he didn’t have a series because he’s been dead a couple of times and Vision is stealing his Schtick). I don’t know that for sure, it could be sloppy writing? Maybe they ran out of character archetypes?

At the end of episode 5, this is when the next five years of the MCU comes into play. Wanda is missing her twin, probably because of her sons, and the doorbell rings. Standing there is Pietro Maximoff. Now the crazy part of this is that he is the wrong Pietro Maximoff (the better one, not the one that has been in the MCU movies, the X-Man Quicksilver). He’s standing there and does the weird Uncle Jesse thing from Full House, (which, if you’re paying attention to the real world, Wanda Maximoff is played by the younger sister of the Olsen twins who played Michelle on Full House in the 80s), but Wanda recognizes that he is the wrong Pietro. Darcy, who is watching the broadcast from outside the Hex, states that Wanda has recast Pietro. But has she? This woman is incredibly powerful, why would she bring back the wrong Pietro? What if she is not in charge? Wanda is really freaked out by this, and that is when I realized I needed to write everything down.

Here are my lingering questions: We have all seen Into The Spiderverse a dozen or so times. Is this how Disney is going to handle the Multi-Verse? Is Pietro the wrong Pietro because of Miles Morales and his rag-tag group of Spidermen? Does this mean that Nicholas Cage is going to be in the MCU? Is Wanda as in charge as we think she is? Can we expect to see Magneto (Wanda’s and Pietro’s dad in the comics) show up to either support his children in the Hex or fight on the side of SWORD? Maybe Professor X will come and get Wanda, Pietro, Timmy, and Billy? Will we finally see if Jean Gray is more powerful than Scarlet Witch (she’s not). Is Hayward a problem of inconsistent writing or is he Loki? Is a multi-verse a way to address Chadwick Bosemen’s death for a proper replacement of Black Panther? Hurry up and watch Episode 6 so we can talk about this stuff!

#WandaVision #WandaMaximoff #Vision #Wiccan #Speed #quicksilver #marvel #CaptainMarvel #MonicaRambeau #DarcyLewis #JimmyWoo #MCU #Marvel Comic Books #Snap

[hoboal87]

Some thoughts and a quasi fix-it on the Finale (SPOILERS)

I want to preface this by saying that I like the finale, if you didn’t, I completely get that, and if you just want to say nasty things, you can move on to the next post =)

I’ll try to keep my thoughts coherent, but no promises. Obviously, a lot of things had to change with this final episode of COVID-19, and I’ll try to address how I think they could’ve worked around it without changing the essence of this episode, which again, I’ll reiterate, I liked.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

As the episode opens, we see the boys living a “normal” life. They don’t have to worry about cosmic entities anymore, they can just do what they do best. I honestly loved this, the boys just being domestic: cooking breakfast, doing research, doing laundry, all of it. My one complaint about this opening montage is there is no clear passage of time. How long has it been since Chuck was rendered powerless? A day? A week? A few months? A year? In my opinion, it’s been maybe a couple of weeks, but I feel like the writers were trying to imply that it’s been a couple of months and it was just unclear. For me, that would have solved one of my few issues with the episode. So let's change it up a little =)

We open similarly, but in the background, we can see the date it is actually five years (or whatever amount) later. The boys are getting ready for their respective days, Dean is living in an apartment over a bar, and we watch as Sam returns from his run and enters a small house. Dean doesn’t just live above the bar, he owns it, finally having some normalcy in his life, this is what wants. He proudly displays pictures of Sam, Bobby, Mary and John, his own way of keeping them close.Sam walks into the kitchen and sees a note on the refrigerator.

“Gone to get supplies, see you tonight, Love, E.”

Sam smiles at the note as he twirls the silver band on his finger, taking in the black and white sonogram displayed prominently next to the note. We follow Sam through the house, and we see photos of his and Eileen’s wedding, and pictures of their families. His kids will never have questions about their pasts, about their families, Sam and Eileen are intent on that.

Dean opens his bar, it’s a steady crowd, flirts with some of the women, but isn’t really pursuing anything, he’s closed himself off to the idea of a wife and kids. He’s got a nephew that’ll be here in a few months anyway, and he’s already told Sam how he plans to spoil that kid rotten. We cut between Sam and Dean, watching them go through their day, Dean working at the bar, Sam with papers splayed in front of him, implying he’s gone back to school. They’re both content, finally getting what they’ve always truly wanted. They still hunt, that much is apparent as we see them at one point cleaning their weapons or doing research.

As Dean closes up the bar he sends Sam a message.

“You ready for tomorrow?”

Sam rolls his eyes playfully, “are you sure its the best idea?”

“Hell, yes. I was born ready, it’s my destiny. Tomorrow 8 am.”

This would be, maybe a 5 to 7 minute opening scene? Then we get the title card. The rest of the episode plays the same from here. Sam and Dean go on a mini-vacation, which turns into a hunt.

So about Dean’s death. I wouldn’t change a single thing.

Personally, I don’t think there was any other way to end the series. As a bunch of people pointed out, Dean’s been saying some form of “I die bloody” since the beginning of the show. Now, did I want Dean to die? No. Dean deserved to live a full and happy life, but as Michael said, “since when do we get what we deserve?”

I rewatched the episode yesterday, and I SOBBED like a fucking baby throughout Dean’s death scene. I will agree it was a little Wincest-y, but, honestly, is it really that surprising? Sam and Dean have only ever had each other. Dean raised Sam, Dean is Sam's parent in every way that counts. A user pointed out, I’m so sorry if you see this please let me know and I will tag to your post, Dean speech starts more as a father to son type instead of brother to brother.

Sam is in shock when Dean tells him that he’s hurt, immediately going with “I’ll get the first aid kit.” The look on Dean’s face is heart-breaking, and you can see that he has already accepted his fate, he’s known since the second that the rebar (NOT A FUCKING NAIL) went through him that he was not walking away. Sam is going through all the stages of grief in just a few minutes.

Denial – “I’ll get the first aid kit.”

Anger – “No, we are gonna get [the boys] somewhere safe.”

Bargaining – “I’ll find a way, I’ll find another way.”

Depression – “Don’t leave me. I can’t do this alone.”

Acceptance – “It’s okay, Dean. You can go now.”

All the while, Dean is telling Sam how proud of him he is, and that he “loves [Sam] so much.” Now, please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that this is the first time that Dean has said to Sam that he loves him. I know we’ve heard him say it to other people and it’s definitely been implied, and the closest we got was in sacrifice, “don’t you think that there is anything, past or present, that I would put in front of you.”

Dean died in his brother’s arms, which to me, was beautiful. Can you imagine, though, Sam, carrying his brother’s lifeless body back to the Impala, setting him down gingerly in the back seat and driving back to the bunker?

I believe that we were supposed to get a lot of people at Dean’s funeral. Jody, Donna, Charlie, Bobby, Claire, (honestly, probably anyone who could be there.) But with travel restrictions into Vancouver, this had to change. It is not realistic for the writers/producers to ask people to quarantine for 2 weeks to shoot a half-day (if that) of filming. I did see that Samantha Ferris did say she wasn’t spoken to about the possibility of returning. I truly believe Shoshanna was supposed to be in this episode, but, her role was going to be very limited, and as much as I wanted to see her (obviously, from the above section) I firmly believe that she was supposed to be the woman Sam married.

Again let’s fix the second half of the episode:

Sam and Eileen give Dean a hunter’s funeral, and Sam quits the life altogether. He doesn’t want his son to ever lose him to a hunt. Eileen helps Sam through his depression, knowing exactly how it feels to lose your family. We get a similar montage, Sam takes over the bar, takes in Miracle, and keeps the Impala tucked away, for now, it’s too painful to even look at. Sam leaves Dean’s apartment as is for the longest time, afraid to move anything, what if he forgets where to put it back? We can see he’s just going through the motions, that is, until his son is born.

We see Sam cradling a newborn in his arms, Dean had joked from the moment Eileen announced her pregnancy that they should name the baby after him. Sam and Eileen laughed him off at the time, saying the world only ever needed one Dean Winchester. But now, Sam can’t think of any better way to honor his brother, than to name his son Dean.

Dean is in Heaven, greeted by Bobby who tells him all about new Heaven. Jack fixed it, and it is the Heaven that Dean deserves. When Bobby mentions Cas, Dean smirks, and Bobby assures him that Cas is around. Dean spots Baby, and tells Bobby that he's going to take her for a drive. Dean doesn’t know how long he's going to drive, but remembers Bobby’s words, “time works different up here,” and knows that eventually Sam will join him.

Dean watches from afar as Sam lives on, raising his son and daughter (cause honestly Sam would want more than one kid), he keeps them knowledgeable about the life, but they don’t hunt. On Dean Jr.’s eighteenth birthday Sam takes him to get an anti-possession tattoo, but it is more of a symbol to honor his family, Sam teaches Dean about the Impala, and how to take care of her, and he’s a natural mechanic just like his Uncle. Once a year, on the anniversary of his brother’s death, Sam sits in Baby, and feels connected to Dean, telling him much he misses him and how he wishes he was with him.

Dean watches as Sam grows old, and keeps his word, even though Sam didn’t know it, he’s been by his side the whole time. On his deathbed, Sam is surrounded by his children and Eileen (or an Eileen stand-in), who tell him it’s okay to go, and tells them all how much he loves them before letting go.

We cut to Dean, waiting on a bridge, the same one from his and Sam’s first hunt, and he can feel himself becoming whole again.

“Heya Sammy.”

#supernatural #supernatural finale #supernatural spoilers #dean winchester #sam winchester #semi-fix it fic #fix-it fic