#so first I had to watch the show to figure out every relevant episode and make an outline

[sergeantpixie]

tell me about whichever WIP isn't about elena gilbert if you can

Anon I know you're trying to be mean but a) I have no shame about how many Elena verses I have, that's my Girl, and b) I am so delighted to be able to talk about the one verse on that list that has nothing to do with Elena Gilbert, that's why I put it there! So thank you!

"I am willing to take more hurt if it's from you" is a project I've been working on for so long and I'm finally making some real progress on it which feels amazing! It's my Alison DiLaurentis/Aria Montgomery (Pretty Little Liars) fic that is supposed to be as canon based as possible, just using the subtext between the two characters to create a story where Alison and Aria were secretly hooking up before Alison disappeared.

Instead of giving you the full pitch on why they make sense as a ship (and why they are basically canon, or at least Alison having feelings for Aria is) I'll just refer to a post where I went off in the tags about them because it says pretty much everything I would say about it here: this post.

In summary: When Alison asked Aria if she knew why she picked her, the answer is: Ali's obsessed with Aria.

The premise of the story would be Alison and Aria's relationship being Rosewood's best kept secret, then when the liars discover Alison has been alive all this time, Aria feels compelled to confess what happened between them all those years ago in order to get ahead of Alison and prevent her from using that to alienate her from the other girls. (Alison is still Alison, I have no interest in changing that.) It's the girls' reaction to that as well as an exploration of Aria and Alison as characters. And maybe Ezra really is A but that might just be implied we'll see.

Between Jake, Ezra, and her first love’s girl-Jesus resurrection, Aria’s love life has never been more complicated, and that’s like, really saying something.

the tiniest excerpt :)

@randomestfandoms

#asks #tag games #anons #thanks anon! #wild that you wanna insult me for loving a character on the loving a character website lmao but thanks for the opportunity to babble! #idk if you got the memo but I have too many WIPs to include them all so I just chose the ones I'm actively working on rn #what that actually means is that there are even MORE Elena verses :) #and also quite a few more that have nothing to do with her #even a few in the tvd verse which will be a first for me #I am willing to take more hurt if it's from you #alia #also maddie idk if you are at all interested since we usually just talk about deanlena but just in case! #maybe the story I have done the most research for? idk I just find them so fascinating and wanted to prove that it's quite easy #to make them a canon ship #so first I had to watch the show to figure out every relevant episode and make an outline #(and take some notes) which I finally finished this past fall (it's just s1-first few episodes of s5) #and then I'll be rewatching all of those episodes in order to par it down to an actual coherent plot #I thought about putting a longer excerpt (maybe even smth from my version ezra's book) but that one always makes me giggle so

[number5theboy]

I just want to talk about how TUA’s pilot episode uses specifically the Phantom Medley, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ and ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ as interconnected character (re-)introductions, because they are so, so good.

So, the Phantom of the Opera Medley gives us our first, mostly silent introductions to five out of the seven siblings. Everyone is doing their thing: Luther is on the moon, Diego is being a vigilante, Allison is at her movie premiere, Klaus is released from rehab and instantly relapses, and Viktor is playing the violin part of the medley by himself on a stage. It establishes what each of them has going on in their life, and it establishes that all of them are alone. The Medley is an instrumental arrangement of several songs from the musical adaptation of the Phantom of the Opera, which is an interesting choice in itself, being a story about a brilliant, reclusive, and unhinged genius who harnesses a young girl’s talent for his own personal gain. There is more to it, but this is the relevant part, for obvious reasons. This is also the scene where we see the siblings find out about the death of the shadowy figure that nurtured their powers and abused them for selfish reasons. If the medley had used the lyrics of the musical, the first song used in the medley – the main theme – has as its key lyrics the following: “The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside my mind.” And isn’t that something for the adults introduced to this melody, whose puppet master messed them up so badly during childhood that that still lingers in all of them, a throughline of that first season?

To this first introduction, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ serves as a re-introduction. It’s the same principle: a musical montage that focuses on each sibling to an overarching song. The theme of being alone is carried through, but this time, surprisingly, they’re not lonely. They’re not unified, they are certainly not getting along, but you get a feeling of their shared past. There is something that tethers them together. And where in the Medley, only Viktor could hear the music, because he was playing it, this time, the music is fully a part of the world. They’re all listening to the same song. They’re alone, but they’re not. They’re alone together, which is a step closer than it was in the Phantom Medley. And while the first montage focuses on what they were doing, established their occupations, this montage just gives us them…being. Existing, without anyone watching. Not their father, not the other siblings. We get such good insights into their personalities. Luther’s un-awareness of his own body leading him to accidentally punch the plane model. Diego’s array of dorky dance moves. Allison’s hesitance before she gets more and more into the song and allows herself to let loose. Klaus dancing with the ghost of his father. Viktor’s dancing being contained and unassuming. The title line, ‘I think we’re alone now’, just perfectly fits, and it’s a great example of visual media recontextualising a song’s lyrics. The original song is about sex, specifically the prohibition and taboo of teenage sex, and with the framing of the show, the lyrics instead become as literal as they could be. “Children behave / That's what they say when we're together / And watch how you play / They don't understand,” becomes about their childhood, about how they were never allowed to be kids, how they had to obey their father’s whims. And now he is gone, and they are alone, and it is good. Kind of. Sort of. While that iconic slow zoom-out visually shows that, their unity, despite all their differences, it is also all of them inside the Umbrella Academy. Them, and Grace, and Pogo, still in an environment that Reginald made. Reginald is still inside their minds. He is gone, but the structures he built, the damage he did to them is not. It’s this moment of catharsis, this instant where each and every one of the siblings allows themselves to be, to live, just for a moment, brought together by Luther playing a song loud enough for everyone to hear, where they think they’re free of Reginald’s abuse, and the rest of the show is them finding out that the death of an abuser doesn’t erase the effect he had. And then the music gets disrupted by someone quite literally crashing the party. But he crashes it from outside the house, because he is the one least concerned with (and, in this season, very clearly least affected by) Reginald.

Five gets his own musical (re-)introduction, and he gets it seven minutes before the end of the episode. Different from his siblings, we get to see his personality before he gets his musical key scene. And we meet him as a kid first, his arrogance, his powers, the use of teleportation to knock a guy out with a stapler. He then appears to inadvertently interrupt the first moment of unity his siblings have had in decades. He brushes off their father’s death. Casually reveals that Reginald has been dead to him for 45 years. It doesn’t matter to him. He has other things on his mind, but of course he doesn’t tell them, why would he? The arrogance is still there, his powers too. He’s insufferable, the viewer understands, and different. Different because he looks like a kid, a literal embodiment of the Umbrella Academy at its height, all knee-high socks and blazer, frozen in time, while at the same time having lived a very different life from his siblings. That’s all the viewer knows of him, by that point. And then ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ happens, and the understanding of the character shifts abruptly, as do the stakes for the entire show. While the introduction scene with the Phantom Medley and the re-introduction scene to ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ are about these different siblings, apart, but maybe closer than they think they are, united by the loss of their father, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ shows you that this one has a completely different set of problems from his siblings. Namely, he is being tracked down, a wanted man, a very skilled killer. The two montages are so calm in comparison to the breakneck (pun intended) pace of Five’s kill spree. He takes out half a dozen men armed with machine guns by outfoxing them, killing them with a wide variety of items in a wide variety of different ways. While ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ contrasts the Phantom Medley, ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ contrasts the Five previously established in the show, especially his childhood self, and shows how his skills have developed. The innocence of the school uniform is quickly lost when he uses its tie to strangle a man to death. The first line in the song is ‘Istanbul was Constantinople / Now it’s Istanbul / Not Constantinople / Been a long time gone, Constantinople.” It’s about how something is technically the same thing – a schoolboy, perhaps – but time has irrevocably changed it, and it can never go back to that old version, because it hasn’t existed in a long time. It’s about Five, and it’s about the apocalypse, and the Commission, but it’s not about Reginald. ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ is the only non-diegetic song of the three discussed here, as in, it is not part of the show’s internal universe. The song is not playing in a jukebox in the diner. It doesn’t partially exist in the universe, like Viktor’s violin being the violin in the medley, or Luther playing the vinyl in the house. It is so different in principle and execution from the other two scenes, but it is still a scene meant to convey an understanding of the character, just like the other two are.

And despite it being purposefully and obviously different, I still think that ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ belongs to the other two scenes, that they form a united whole of introductions to the Hargreeves siblings. The diner scene rhymes with the other two, I think, in its marked differences, but there are threads that tie them together. How the violin is a key instrument in both the Phantom Medley and ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’. How the medley shows the Hargreeves in the lives they had carved out for themselves away from Reginald, ‘I Think We’re Alone Now’ positions them in the house they grew up in, in the Umbrella Academy, Reginald’s domain, whereas ‘Istanbul (Not Constantinople)’ is set in a place where the kids defied Reginald. How the theme of loneliness and being alone threads through all of them. How the songs are, in order, partially diegetic (siblings apart but tied together by their past), fully diegetic (siblings enjoying the same thing despite being physically apart) and non-diegetic (the one sibling that is apart from them in age, time, space, part of his upbringing, you name it). How pertinent the lyrics are in each case, even the ones that aren’t technically in the song. I just think all three of them are brilliant needle drops that add so much to the story, the understanding of the characters and their relation to each other, just in the microcosm of this one pilot episode. Also they’re all incredible bangers.

#my meta #tuamre #Soundtrack #i love all of these scenes SO much they are so good at showing and showcasing these characters

[formerheroeswhoquittoolate]

why I'm unhappy with secret invasion: an accidental essay that turned out WAY more aggressive than I wanted it to (sorry about that)

I'm furious about how Secret Invasion is going. It feels like Marvel just went ahead with a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project, but and it's barely interesting and it's fucking with canon characterization. And it's fucking Secret Invasion! This could be meaningful! But instead it feels like it's trying to redo what TFATWS already did and did better. We already HAD a show about a global terrorist movement and the evils of white privilege, and it was actually really good, so what is this show supposed to be again? Oh. I see. It's different because Nick Fury is in it. Gotcha.

Oh, and [spoilers for ep 1 and 2]

They killed Maria Hill in the first episode. Not only did they kill her (which is bad enough from this studio, considering they've also killed Gamora, Natasha, and Wanda), but they fridged her. And not even kind-of-fridged, like with the aforementioned characters, where the death was required and mostly reasonable by in-universe circumstances, even if it was an easy out. No. Maria was literally, actually, to-the-letter fridged. They even confirm that in the dialogue of the second episode. Fury actually says that Gravik killed her to hurt him. She didn't have to die -- hell, if she wasn't going to be relevant to the rest of the show, she didn't even need to be in it in the first place! (More on that in a minute.)

And the thing is. The thing is. I would be so much happier with the show if the roles were reversed. Canon Fury is all "I still believe in heroes! There's good in people! Befriend the aliens!" He's a badass spymaster, yeah, sure, but he's also pretty optimistic about people. And then there's Maria Hill.

[Image description: Maria Hill, saying "Best advice you'll ever get from me, a dedicated law enforcement officer, to you, an amateur looking to go pro: 'Assume everyone is a broken, nightmare, garbage person and then be pleasantly surprised if it ends up not the case.' It'll save you a lifetime of disappointments."] [Image credits: Bendis and Pichelli's Spider-Man #12 (2017)]

That seems to have carried over into the MCU fairly well. And to see her? Struggling to fulfill Fury's goal after his death, operating without her mentor for the first time, trying to figure out how to reconcile his faith in the Skrulls with her natural instinct that everyone is lying all the time? To see her actually doing the work, speaking to the security committee and telling them to piss off, because Fury was in Moscow to do a hero's work and he died a hero, no further questions? To see her, the character who has long been reduced to the sidekick of male characters with a much shorter stint in Marvel's canon, fully come into her own as the protagonist of this series? It would have been perfect. We could have actually gotten a show full of espionage and intrigue instead of a hamfisted... racism metaphor? I'm not even sure at this point. This could have actually been something besides a Samuel L. Jackson vanity project. I know I said that already, but I am going to say it again. This show is here so Jackson can look cool and badass and also be a funny old man. And I wouldn't care if they weren't reducing every other meaningful character in the series to a Skrull, a corpse, or a realpolitik adversary. Like, fuck this false advertising. Maria Hill, Everett Ross, and Rhodey were all in the trailer like they were going to be relevant. As if this was going to be an interesting web of an ensemble cast. Instead, it's the Nick Fury show with a few redeeming scenes from the terrifyingly cheery British spymaster lady.

It's almost like Marvel knew no one would want to watch the show if they just straight-up said it was going to be all Nick Fury. And I haven't even started on the bullshit that was the train conversation (a whole monologue about sitting in the colored section on trains and then straight-up telling Talos there's not enough room for his people on the train? Was I the only one thrown off by that?) or the dialogue between him and Rhodey in the bar ("even when I'm out, I'm in.") or the Skrull wife reveal (which felt like it wanted to be some big important twist but it also had exactly zero setup) or... whatever is happening with Talos and Gaea. The next episode comes out in two days, and I'm still crossing my fingers that a miracle of plot will happen and it will get better. But it's going to take a miracle.

#marvel #mcu #secret invasion #nick fury #maria hill #skrulls #marvel cinematic universe #talos #everett ross #james rhodes #comics #fridging #rant post #except I have evidence #so it's really more of an essay

[maschotch]

I was rewatching season 5 and I'm sorry but I find the episode immediately after hotch gets his shit wrecked by foyet so funny bc they're all treating him like he's this unhinged psycho like abdjfjds yeah I GET that that's what he was supposed to be like but the way they executed it, he really wasn't that out of order. It's just funny to me when he did like literally anything the other character on screen would look at him like 😧😦🫢

i actually find this soooo interesting for so many reasons.

foyet is the first "big bad" we really get for criminal minds. i've said a lot about whether this was a good directional shift for the show, but it was an interesting move to target the team leader first. hotch has, for the most part, gone largely unrecognized by the drama of the show so far. sure he's had his divorce blah blah, but he doesn't talk about it much. if he doesn't talk about it, the team's curiosity will fade sooner rather than later. that seems to be his strategy whenever something is going on with him. and it tends to work.

but now it's different. this was a serious event that happened. they can't help but recognize the severity of what just happened, and there's a palpable difference in the team dynamic because of it. so when everyone has their eyes on hotch, scrutinizing his every move, i don't think it's necessarily because he's acting different (even tho he is--even if his general risk assessment is the same, he's still initially snappier towards friends and strangers than they're used to seeing from him), but because they're aware of his presence in a way that they're not accustomed: he's vulnerable. he's not the unbreakable monolith of stability the team has believed him to be this whole time. i think a big reason why it hit the team so hard isn't just because of what happened, but the way their relationships have all developed up until now.

morgan and garcia are very clearly the most concerned out of everyone. beyond their closeness, i think that has a lot to do with both of them losing a parent/parents at a young age. seeing their leader--who they have so much respect and love for--severely wounded fucks them up!! hotch more or less holds a father figure role in both of their lives, and it's not something that appeared out of nowhere (and here i'll add reid since he doesn't have the trauma of a parent's death, but he does see hotch as a parental figure). it's the result of years and years of building trust, both in character and as a symbol of strength and security (which is now relevant to jj, whose whole character development is about trying to emulate that mythical strength). their faith is shaken in him--not because of his own actions, but because of their own idealized concept of him that was challenged by hotch's very very human fallibility. even emily, who doesn't rely on him emotionally the way the rest of the team does, is disturbed, but only because she sees him as a protector of the team--as a protector of the new chance of life she has with them. now that that's threatened, she needs to see his safety through with her own eyes (which is why she's the first to notice him missing, and the one who needs to drive him to and from work after this). he's the rock of the team, and no one expects the rock to crack.

i hate when rossi ends up the voice of reason, but in this case it really makes sense. he doesn't have any aggrandized notions of who hotch is: he watched hotch grow within the bau. rossi knows how to push hotch, when to push hotch, because he knows hotch won't break easy. even when hotch hates himself, like the original omnivore episode, rossi doesn't hesitate to shove a gun in hotch's hand and tell him to kill himself because he knows hotch would never. rossi's perfectly aware of the weaknesses hotch refuses to let the rest of the team see. when rossi tries to assuage derek's worries, it's not because he doesn't care, but because he knows not to stifle him. he knows hotch will get through this, he just needs time. i think everyone's reaction to hotch's return is perfectly emblematic of their relationship to him: morgan questions his authority suddenly because the inherent trust is lost. emily is above all worried about his safety because she knows that jeopardizes the team. reid is worried but he doesn't interfere because, as far as he's concerned, hotch can handle it. garcia is worried but doesn't interfere because she doesn't know how to help. jj's concern is more akin to pity because the bastion of strength she's respected for so long ended up being just as human as the rest of them. rossi's concern for hotch is on the back burner because he sees that the team is fracturing around the edges

i love 5x02 because we spend surprisingly little time on hotch dealing with his emotions; instead, we focus on the team dealing with hotch's vulnerability. they're fully aware of him for the first time, and they overreact to everything they would normally accept at face value. they rarely question his judgment before this because they trust him implicitly. he's proven himself, and it's heartbreaking that--through no fault of his own--he has to build that trust back. rossi says to derek "we have to show we have his back." derek interprets that as watching his back, to double check every decision and making sure he's alright based on those decisions. even jj knows that, given the heat he's getting from his superiors, that's the last thing hotch needs.

#i had to open tumblr on my laptop for the first time in years to answer this bc i needed a proper keyboard to express my thoughts #so if anything looks super fucked up thats why #asks

[affiesque]

As promised, here’s the second half of my random thoughts and observations about Desire Catcher now that I’ve finished my latest rewatch (links aren’t working for me right now, but if you want to read the first half just click on one of the tags on this post and it should come up easily). The entire series is 24 episodes, most of which are somewhere between 35 and 45 minutes long - so, depending on what types of shows you usually watch, it might be a bit of a commitment. But I definitely think it’s worth it.

OK, time to brace yourself, as there’s a lot going on in this second part…

At the halfway mark the relationship between Luo Fei and Lu Fengping is starting to fray (oh look, it's my good friend angst again) - essentially, Lu Fengping is frustrated that his mom’s murder remains unsolved and Luo Fei hasn’t given him much in the way of clues like he was supposed to. Lu Fengping ends up working with the main villain (Bai Ya Xing), who is behind all of the crimes/murders that have been happening, to find his mom’s killer and get revenge. (I won’t spoil the details, but I will say that this particular storyline could probably have used some fleshing out, as the details and motivations don’t quite come together in the end. As I’ve noted before, the real draw with Desire Catcher is the relationships, so you can kind of wave those plot holes away - unless that sort of thing really bothers you, which I totally get.)

There’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game going on throughout the middle episodes, with Lu Fengping getting more cagey and Luo Fei chasing after him a bit, attempting to figure out what he’s hiding. You get Luo Fei trying to casually inquire with multiple people as to Lu Fengping’s whereabouts when he’s gone for no more than a couple of hours at a time (we get it bro, you’re obsessed), not to mention lurking in the shadows near his apartment at night (yikes, dude). During this period there are definitely times when Lu Fengping looks almost guilty for pulling away and for what he’s planning to do, like he wants to confide in Luo Fei but he can’t - there’s a particular wistfulness to his expressions that’s so on point and gets me every time.

One nice little touch throughout is the many dinner dates the two leads go on - granted, one ends with Luo Fei leaving before they even eat anything, and another has him answering Lu Fengping’s question “Does everyone look like a suspect to you?” with “Yes - you look like one too,” so not exactly the most romantic situations (social skills are not Luo Fei’s strong point). But I am a sucker for those little intimate moments - misty evenings with blurry streetlights, tables piled high with steaming dishes and clinking glasses, the muted conversations of the people around them - and of course the sharing food = love symbolism.

Speaking of tropes, if you’re a fan of jealousy, then DC has got you covered. Again, no big plot spoilers here but Luo Fei finds out Lu Fengping has brought a girl home one night - not for the reason he (or anyone else) thinks, but you can tell he’s in his feelings about it (and Lu Fengping, I love you, but maybe in the future do not kidnap a stranger - even if you had your reasons and you were sort of helping her in the moment). He ends up getting arrested (twice!) for the abduction and when Luo Fei fails to help him, their “big breakup” begins in earnest - Lu Fengping saying “I shouldn’t have counted on you right from the start” got me right in the heart, ngl.

*Books as symbolism alert* - we get just one shot of some books strewn around Lu Fengping’s apartment in the second half, but I did find it interesting that the subtitles call out two of them specifically, which feels important. Those are “The Sea, The Sea” by Iris Murdoch and “It Takes More Than A Carrot And A Stick” by Wess Roberts. The former is about love and loss and romantic ideals by an author known for writing about morality and the power of the unconscious - things that seem relevant to a hypnotist, I would think. The latter actually made me laugh audibly when I noticed the subtitle: “Practical Ways Of Getting Along With People You Can’t Avoid At Work.” Sounds about right for them.

Here’s another alert - BIG GIANT SPOILERS AHEAD!! Click below with caution…

OK, so the big event of the second half is Lu Fengping faking his death(!!) in order to give him the time and space away from Luo Fei/the police to move ahead with his revenge plan. Long story short, Luo Fei thinks Lu Fengping has blown himself up, goes through the five stages of grief, figures out he’s still alive and somehow manages to be like, “Hey, thought you were dead but no biggie - let’s not even hug it out and instead just go right back to teasing each other and solving crimes - it’s all good.” Honestly, I’m glossing over a lot here - how absolutely devastated Luo Fei (and everyone else, for that matter) is when he thinks Lu Fengping is dead, how they finally yell a bit about their feelings and come clean about certain things when they reunite, how the OST rips your heart out again and again in these moments (“Did we meet just to be torn apart?” - I mean, come on), how relieved Lu Fengping looks when he realizes that Luo Fei doesn’t hate him for what he did, how Luo Fei suddenly can’t stop smiling (you’ve come a long way, baby). I think these are probably some of the strongest scenes in the entire show, but I must admit that the way they don’t truly address the fallout of something this intense still bugs me (stay tuned for a fic I’m writing on that very topic, in case that sort of thing interests you - and @thinkonce-acttwice, I ✨promise✨ I’m actually working on it!).

I know I haven’t mentioned Liang Yin in this second-half review yet - what happened/happens to her still plays a major role in the story of Lu Fengping’s mom’s death. I won’t give the details here, but do note that there are some flashback scenes of her getting attacked that might be rough for some viewers - so please keep that in mind. However, aside from a couple of moments where the men in her life feel the need to protect/shelter her despite her being quite capable of handling things herself, I will say that the story gives her back some agency, and it does feel as if by the end she’s come to terms with her past and is in a good place overall. And the relationship between her, Luo Fei, and Lu Fengping gets a really nice resolution - a sort of found family thing that brings them all together.

There’s lots of plot movement as we work our way through the final episodes - the big bad villain is vilaining, there’s an evil nurse who’s in on the shenanigans, poor Professor Ling (Lu Fengping’s mentor and fellow hypnotist) gets accused of being a fraud and ends up in the hospital, Lu Fengping almost stabs himself in the heart while hypnotized by Bai Ya Xing (though of course Luo Fei shows up in the nick of time to save him - I swear, despite knowing that this is just a “bromance” show, every time I watch that scene there’s one split second where it seems like they’re about to lean in and kiss - oof), poor Liang Yin gets kidnapped by the big bad villain (unfortunately, more “man pain”). I tell you, this show is a roller coaster ride every freaking episode.

I won’t spoil the final ending too much, but rest assured Liang Yin is fine. Stuff happens, Lu Fengping ends up in prison - though he sort of puts himself there on purpose, sacrificing himself for Luo Fei, even if he doesn’t come out and say that’s what he’s doing. And he basically gets a form of justice for his mom’s death. The very last bit sees him return from prison on parole - he reunites with the police team and Luo Fei in a slightly cheesy but rather touching moment, though, again, even just a quick hug would’ve been nice…

Bottom line, I love all of them, your honor, and will probably never be over this show - there’s so much to unpack in terms of the role of fate in our lives, how broken people can find something in each other to live for, how to forgive others and, importantly, yourself.

OK, again, this one got away from me, and I know I’m probably forgetting like a million little things, but hopefully I’ve managed to entertain at least one other person with my ramblings. And if anything here has sounded intriguing, please check this little show out so it gets the love it deserves! 🖤

#desire catcher #lu fengping x luo fei #lu fengping #luo fei #my recap

[onekisstotakewithme]

Top five favorite stories you’ve posted this year

oh this is a good one! thank you anon. this is going to be a fun mix of fandoms, hope that's okay 💜 but also not me forgetting every story i wrote this year.

None of Us are More Than Caretakers (The West Wing) - I had so much fun writing this, I had the whole thing written in about six weeks, and I see it as sort of the transition-era story we didn't get... all because I was reading on wikipedia and saw that Gerald Ford died over the holiday season in 2006. Anyway, read if you enjoy CJ/Danny seekrit relationship, a story about transition of power, and taking care of the country (and each other). 66k.

Close to the Heart (M*A*S*H) - Okay, I know this one is ongoing but hear me out: I love writing about the dynamic between Hawkeye and the Hunnicutts. I love taking tropes and subverting them, turning ideas on their heads. Close to the Heart aka subverted noir AU does ALL of those things for me. It's fun to have canon echoes and twisted dynamics, and fun to keep the audience guessing. 💜 23.5k but still ongoing.

A Night to Watch (The West Wing) - It shows a tiny bit that this was one of my first TWW fics, but tbh I don't care, because it still has one of my favourite headcanons in it: Danny driving the seven and a half-ish hours from manchester to DC on election night because he thinks CJ needs him. 6.1k.

Perfect (M*A*S*H) - One of my favourite things, as stated previously, is subversion. I love the idea of Peg and BJ both wanting to make their anniversary "perfect" (and then of course realizing that they're together again so it is perfect). This idea of them growing post-war and slowly growing back together while also seeing how they've grown separately is just... chef's kiss. to me. love those two. 2.5k.

Off the Record (The West Wing) - One of my more out-there concepts: one missing (CJ/Danny) scene for every episode of season 1 of The West Wing. An out-there concept I compounded by also writing them for seasons 2, 3, and part of 4. I had SO MUCH FUN writing these, fleshing out canon and building on it!!! I think it added a lot to canon without ever trampling on it, but that's just me! 31k. + Bonuses (under cut)

6. its torment won't be through (M*A*S*H) - A tag to 'That's Show Biz' that I started a year or two ago, and I loved the opening dialogue so much that when I found it this year, I decided I'd rewrite it. I figured it was just an average beejhawk story, but I went back and reread it recently and it had grown on me a lot! 2.6k. 7. An Idea, Whose Time has Come (The West Wing) - Briefly hesitated about putting this one in, because I need to get back to it, but I love this fic so much. It's a fun, original idea, even if I need to do a shit tonne of research for every chapter (that + grad school is why it's taking so long!), but anyway, CJ runs for President in 2018. Hopefully will not be too relevant going into an election year... 14k (so far).

#thank you anon! <3 #m*a*s*h #the west wing #bj x peg x hawkeye #beejhawk #cj x danny #i also really loved both the fics i did for exchanges this year but since those are still embargoed! #the best fics don't necessarily equal my favourites. but this is how i feel #admittedly it felt like a slower year for M*A*S*H but. here we are regardless.

[gingerteaonthetardis]

Hi! I watched the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel when it first came out, but didn't like it enough to continue, and I just have to say...seeing your MidgexLenny posts is giving me LIFE. I thought I was being a crazy shipper for picking up ✨vibes✨ when he bailed her out (and I think helped her with her set? or introduced her to a new crowd? details are hazy now) but I feel so vindicated that they apparently did have some romantic moments haha hope the show ends on a high note for you! 😊

hey, thank youuuu! yeah, i think the show maybe had something different in mind for lenny's trajectory (i honestly feel he was just supposed to be midge's comedy fairy godmother/a cool and historically relevant figure) but the fact is that luke and rachel have batshit insane chemistry and every scene they're in together elevates the show and at a certain point, ASP probably had to just write with that in mind rather than try to avoid the inevitable. maybe i'm wrong, idk.

but yeah, when he helps her out at the gaslight at end of season one, that's basically when it started coming together for me the first time around. and then, i mean—

not to do analysis that you didn't ask for, but lenny hides, like. all of his smiles behind his hand or a finger or a cigarette or like... the nearest potted plant or something. his smile is tightly controlled a lot of the time (when it isn't a performance). so to see him already sort of opening up with her just made me feel like, 'oh. they are each going to see the other for who they really are. that's going to be the foundation.'

and it's true! they do see each other, and that is the foundation and the heart and it is so fucking good! unfortunately, i don't think that'll save them, given the real actual history involved and the fact that ASP has a bad record with resolving this kind of stuff.

but frankly, that doesn't matter—one episode left and then it's just me and the fix-it fics, lmao. so i appreciate the well-wishes! but even if the show ends on a low note, i can count on the fandom to help me forget it ever happened

#also i don't blame you for not continuing. i didn't on my first try—they lost me early in s2 #but now i'm depressingly obsessed with it!! oops #nice people being nice #sallysellsseashellssunday #abbey.txt #midgelenny #tmmm

[kurisus]

Link Click Season 2: Thoughts

Just a post of everything that's been going through my head over the course of this season. First reflections, then theories for next time. Spoilers for all episodes under the cut, obviously. This is also so long Tumblr started glitching out on me, so I hope it reads well~

LU GUANG TIME TRAVELER THEORY REAL BITCHESSSSSS

I know literally everyone had figured this out already but the execution of it was sooooo satisfying. It was to the point where if that wasn't where they were going with him, I wasn't sure what their plans were, and then everything fell into place just perfectly.

I genuinely don't have anything bad to say about that last episode. It was perfectly done in every way, and I'm super excited to see the next season play out--after we get some much-needed conflict establishment in that prequel, whatever it is.

As for the rest of the season though...I agree with the stuff I've seen about the pacing being a sore spot. It didn't ruin the season for me, but the constant recapping of scenes we've already seen + long fight scenes that didn't advance the plot was just kind of frustrating especially watching this weekly as I did and knowing I wasn't going to get answers this time. Episode 2 was the weakest for this, imo, since it felt like half of the episode was made of scenes from the first and the CXS + QL fight, while cool, didn't really do much for me. It felt like I was watching the chimera ant arc from HXH all over again, sometimes.

I've also seen takes that they forced the length of each episode to end on a cliffhanger but I kinda disagree? Season 1 had cliffhangers too, and the episodes were a little shorter. They could have shortened the episodes (to not repeat scenes and not draw out the fights) and still ended on cliffhangers, and I kind of expected those since again they were common in the first season. If I expect anything from Link Click, it's that they'll find a way to make a cliffhanger out of it.

I don't really have an issue with most of the season taking place in a single day either (again...chimera ant arc...literal peak fiction, but holy shit it took like 10 episodes to cover 1 minute in real-time but it wouldn't have been so effective if it didn't take its time), although it is a bit of a change from the first season, which was spread out over months. I rationalize it as the cases themselves happened within 12 hours, so this was kind of just one longer and more detailed case.

The director said he was going for a suspense angle this season rather than heartwrenching, and in that regard I think he succeeded. I didn't cry this season, but I did feel very stressed out the whole time, and the middle chunk of episodes simply flew by every week. They felt 5 minutes long. I have a feeling the next season will balance the best of both worlds--plot-relevant suspense with heartwrenching moments, kind of like the final scene of this season.

So yeah, a sore spot, not really a dealbreaker. I did read the interview with Li Haolin where he acknowledged the pacing issues and said he'll try to do better next season, which I really appreciated. I've seen it happen too often where the following season is too far into production or the showrunner thinks they're above criticism, and the show drops in quality as a result. I think season 3 will be the best yet, but I'm also scared by him saying the main story and ending are set in stone--what are they gonna do to us? How many seasons will they go on? I'd rather have the story come to its natural conclusion than be dragged on because it's popular.

Moving on, I liked the way they used the time travel powers this season to figure out more about the people chasing them, and to give Chen Bin some closure. Basically in a way that was plot relevant as opposed to exposition, although I wish they'd used their powers more in the back half. I thought it was a cool utilization of what we already know.

I liked the new characters we got this season, esp the parts revolving around the twins (and episode 9!!! it was so artsy!!!!). They made for very compelling characters, and I think Qian Jin will be back for more. Though I feel like the Li Tianchen we got was a bit different than his presentation last season where he was a childish, but highly intelligent, serial killer who is single-minded in his ruthlessness. This version seems to be struggling with his own motivations, mainly because his sister didn't follow him down the same path and he doesn't trust the guy giving him orders. It's a more rounded character, but not as compelling of a villain. I'm excited to see what happens when he teams up with Liu Xiao, though, since I have a feeling LX is going to be like my original interpretation of LTC. Redemption arc for LTC? Or will he get worse?

And what was up with Captain Xiao telling the main characters he was planning to resign once he caught Chen Bin's killer, then announcing he was promoted at the end? I know technically Tianchen is still at large, but cmon, he got a promotion for getting his colleagues killed? They should have just omitted the line about him resigning, tbh.

In terms of expectations vs reality for this season, I tried not to have expectations because I didn't want to be let down, but I sort of developed them anyway. My sole expectation was "challenge the idea that death is unchangeable" which they did get to--but only at the very beginning with LG's flashback, and then again in the last episode when they gave more context to it, so it wasn't the focus. This is because my vision for the season was one in which CXS experiences LG's death, then rewinds time to try to fix it, each time getting a step closer to solving the mystery. We didn't end up getting that because he remembered his character development, but I do kind of wonder what that would have been like. Maybe a little too close to Steins;Gate, and then I'd have been disappointed that they did the same thing as another time travel show I love, lol.

In any case, it seems they're going to do that next season. Or the following. However long it takes for them to elaborate on whatever the hell it is that Lu Guang did.

I also felt like they were going to go back in time to when CXS thought LG was dead and absolutely broke down, and how much of that was just a miscommunication, except this time he would be dead for real. But the more I think about it, the more it seems unlikely with the direction the story has been heading. Instead, LAN was simply trolling us with LG's fate for 2 years and pulled a switcharoo that CXS was the one we should fear for next? idk I want them to go back to the absolute despair of thinking your partner/best friend/boyfriend died while you were separated, but not hit the brakes on it so quickly.

Which brings me to my next concern--because of how everything happened so close together, the main characters didn't have much time to process everything that happened to them since last time. Qiao Ling didn't reflect much on her being possessed and stabbing someone she thinks of as a friend (remember how she screamed when she saw the blood on her hands? I wanted more of that), CXS and LG didn't get to talk about LG being stabbed, almost dying, and then kidnapped, also while thinking he was dead for a few hours there; and CXS didn't get a breather after being thrown into an extremely intense domestic violence situation unexpectedly, and coming out of it nearly collapsing. Because of the short timeskip at the end of the season, it seems like they may just skip over this and leave these conversations between seasons. Or the trauma they endured may come back up in new and spicy ways. I'll be interested to see what they do, but I'm going to be kind of bummed if they don't talk about any of what happened to each other, since that was such a big part of season 1.

So from reflections, on to theories...After watching episode 2, I developed a theory that I will lay out here because of how much I got right. Yes, I'm gonna brag a bit:

I was right about Cheng Xiaoshi dying originally and Lu Guang apparently having both sets of powers, as seen when he clapped back in time, but the rest I have a few questions about.

First, the matter of the powers. I've seen a lot of people saying powers are passed when their user dies, but I don't think they are because I don't know how CXS would have powers in the present day unless a whole character we don't know about died in his arms before he even met LG. I also don't believe that Tianxi is dead either (they didn't show me a body and I won't believe it until I see one), so while I think it's possible QL has her powers and doesn't realize it, she didn't transfer them with death.

Next, how many times has LG rewound time? My gut feeling was that this is his first time because of how much has changed this time around. He didn't know about Tianchen and vice versa, so either CXS died before the twins came into the picture or the timeline has changed enough that now other people with powers are involved when they weren't before. Then again, he leapt so far back in the timeline (that basketball game) it wouldn't surprise me if none of the show's canon was part of the original timeline.

Third, how did CXS die? And who killed him? Maybe it was LX, maybe it was QJ (thinking of how LG's first instinct when meeting the guy was to try to LITERALLY PUNCH HIM TO DEATH), maybe it was someone we haven't met yet...I think we can agree he was murdered, though, and it wasn't an accidental death. Perhaps he was shot, perhaps stabbed, but more than anything I'm interested to see how that unfolds since LG seems to feel responsible and I have to wonder how much is survivor's guilt and how much is because he caused it.

Fourth, if death is a node that can be changed, would it have saved CXS's life if LG had died there? The times we've seen the timeline change, the same person still died at roughly the same time, but the circumstances got altered. I'm thinking here of Emma's death changing from suicide to murder (? I haven't rewatched season 1 since before season 2 started so I could be wrong), and Chen Bin going from jumping off the roof while possessed to losing the possession but being pushed (we saw the door closing on him originally). If someone else had killed themselves at that time, would he still be alive? It seems strange the laws would work as "someone has to die, it doesn't matter who." The only way I can think of this idea working in the context of our main duo is if CXS and LG are somehow the same person and all I can say is, god I hope not lmao, but then what was up with LG thinking "better me than him"?

Fifth, CXS apparently died on September 13 (or September 12, since LG leaped 5 minutes after midnight), but season 1 skipped right over that date and the end and this whole season took place in late October (going by the dates. I have seen the posts about time being broken, though, so let's see if that was stuff changing in the writing process without being fixed or something intentional). Was LG really able to delay his death by a whole month (causing a major timeline shift), or do we still have most of a year left before it happens? CXS was wearing his season 1 outfit when he died, but that could very well be a red herring.

Sixth, does LX have powers? I think he must, but what are they? How much does he know (ie just that the timeline is being fucked with, or does he know who is doing it?), and is he working for a higher power to "fix" time or simply himself? How will Tianchen help him achieve his goals? To me it seems likely LX is aware of other people with powers since he appeared to give advice to Tianchen in a crucial hour, then was in the same foreign country as our main two. Maybe he keeps tabs on all power users, or maybe he actually knows the main two personally but they don't know he's the one after them. He's certainly wise beyond his years is all I can say for now.

My post got so long Tumblr is yelling at me about a character limit, so that's why there's a break here. To the next text block~

I'm curious to see how much of what happened this season will be changed, nullified, or otherwise wiggled around in the timeline. Since it seems like a lot of this didn't happen in the original timeline, what of CXS possessing LG? Were those inconsistencies (how the window was broken, the phone being faceup/facedown, the password knowledge being only incidental) a result of animation errors or small shifts in the timeline? Will these things be important later? Until they say otherwise, my resting theory is that LG took that photo and used his power to read forward into time, see the boat's location, and send it to QL, and the actual hospital breakout was him originally. We have seen now that he can fight.

Link Click's time travel has always been less rules more vibes to me so I don't mind if these inconsistencies don't end up being important after all, but all the same it will he cool if they are.

That scene of CXS and QL as little kids is very precious to me, but it just occurred to me that took place before they knew LG and thus before he started fucking with the timeline. How much of pre-series canon will be changed as a result, ie those memories QL has? We still don't know anything about CXS's parents either, so both of these things may get overwritten in the timeline. Imagine a timeline where CXS was completely lonely...

QJ was built up as a villain a lot this season so I wouldn't be at all surprised if he busted out of prison in the second half or the end of next season. Another one for LX to manipulate? Will he be the one getting him out?

Does QL have powers now? It seems like Tianxi gave her powers at the end there, but she hasn't realized it yet. I was kinda hoping she doesn't since I'd prefer one of the three remains "normal," but if that's the direction they're taking, I trust they'll do something interesting with it, especially since that power is required for Tianchen to kill people.

Speaking of, I'm super excited to find out what will happen when CXS inevitably discovers what LG has been keeping from him. Maybe QL will confront LG first and the two of them will try to figure things out, only for CXS to feel doubly betrayed that the two closest friends he has in his life know he's died and haven't said anything about it to him, and have been actively trying to prevent his death again. The angst fallout with that will be delicious. I'm also thinking of the shot in the season 2 OP of QL turning her back on him once the song reverses, hmmm.

LTC only became aware of CXS in the first place because when he was talking to Emma on the bridge, he said he's a time traveler and gave his name. So, it's a loop, but we have yet to see how LTC figured out where CXS worked and learned who his friends are to go after Xu Shanshan. Will LG reach the same conclusion and somehow cause that action to be undone, and will that in turn affect LX's perception of events?

All in all, despite some issues with the pacing of season 2 dragging it down and making it not quite as good as season 1, I still really enjoyed it and thought the music especially was a big upgrade from what was already so good (VORTEX, Until It Dies, and Mastermind will be on loop for a while longer). I also had a great time checking the tags regularly for fanart, gifsets, and theories, and I'm excited to see what unhinged theories we'll develop by the time season 3 rolls around. Until then, see ya in the prequel!

#Link Click #shiguang daili ren #时光代理人 #this is so LONG hdkjfhkjd sorry but POV you're my friend on Discord and waking up to these half-baked thoughts every morning #these are at least more formulated than that #shoutout to my friends for supporting my insanity tho. yall are real ones #live update

[thegeminisage]

ok ok ok it's star trek update time. last time we watched tng's "liaisons" and ds9's "the circle."

liaisons (tng):

the summary of this one put me off soooo bad but i actually give it an enthusiastic pass because i loved the b plot but conned myself into also liking the a plot. allow me to explain

the b plot of this is of course the fantastic riker e worf e deanna showing the ambassadors a good time on the enterprise. this arc satisfied me from start to finish because it started with riker telling worf he looked good in a dress and finished with worf beating that annoying guy's face in, and in the middle there was also a poker game and whatever the FUCJ was happening in their little meeting room which was extremely fun and flirty

i have not forgotten btw that worf e deanna is supposed to happen in s7. im so sorry the actors hated it but rn it is Fueling me. bring it on.

the a plot is more complicated and the summary of this plot is what initially put me off

like, of Course it's picard and a woman. again.

here's what i didn't know: one, this woman was batshit insane and not to be trusted, and 2, she wasn't real but a fake roleplay character made by this alien. who is a man

THAT MEANS. NOT ONLY DID PICARD FINALLY GET HIS OWN CLOSE ENOUNTER

BUT IT WAS WITH A MAN

picard has canonically kissed a man. or um been kissed by one i guess

and all of that would have been just borderline and barely ekeing out with a pass EXCEPT

i had the thought near the end of this episode: q would be absolutely SICK

as we know. the funniest thing about q and indeed perhaps his only redeeming factor. is how bad he wants to fuck sir patrick stewart. which gets ONLY FUNNIER the more that sir patrick stewart is like, i would fuck literally anyone else in the galaxy first

and now here picard is, having liplocked with another guy, and he STILL hasn't fucked q. i spent so long giggling about this that i simply must give the episode a passing grade

also, i would like to note i figured out they were the same person before the episode told us. i am JUST that good

the circle (ds9):

KIRA MY BELOVED.....................................

absolutely tickled to pieces with the ensemble scene at the opening. first we had this nice little prolonged kira and odo moment 😍 which was so wonderful because of their like general dynamic and history being hinted at and then EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF THE CAST SAVE SISKO got their sitcom intro. it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen. they were like, you simply cannot be dismissing major kira unfairly. so true. once again it is so cathartic to see them rallying around her whether they're federation or not. literally treating her really niceys

AND SISKO! his little scene with her in the garden down on the planet...wah. he's literally constantly trying to get her back. his support even when she's no longer technically working for him...EVERYBODY treats her really niceys

um except that vedek guy...idk whether he's on the level or not and i DID NOT like whatever sexy stuff was going on in that orb vision. putting aside the hilarious reality of orbs in general for a second are the prophets saying she has to fuck that guy? not my beautiful queen.

um and also except the circle. i didnt actually see the plot twist coming this time about that minister guy being in on it which is very fun. also i'm sooo glad they staged a speedy rescue

ODO THE RAT! i love when he turns into stuff

also odo blackmailing quark into being his deputy lol i LOOOOVE what they have it's SO funny

anyway i hope vedek winn chokes on her oatmeal when she finds out the cardassians are funding her little r*n d*santis campaigns. i thought that was a fun plot twist if not very surprising ultimately like of COURSE they are. it's crazy how relevant some of this still is

and on a final note, i like that sisko has chosen to Rules Lawyer his way into disobeying the prime directive because it is the right thing to do here. GOOD FOR HIM!

tonight: tng's "interface" and ds9's "the siege," finally concluding this little three-parter.

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb #ds9 lb

[gaeasun]

Ok I have watched both episodes of Ahsoka so gonna make a list of pros and cons. will be much more serious cons than serious pros. Not spoiler free!

pros first:

there is a very cute loth-cat. adorable. stole my heart. best live action tooka creature so far.

All or most of the human casting and portrayal was very spot on. Ryder was great and so nice to hear a familiar voice, Sabine was good, also chopper was spot on in everything.

actually all of the droids carried the humor for the episodes. very funny.

the lightsabers look and sound cool.

the non-lightsaber fight was good (and by that i mean sabine kicking around those droids)

SABINE DOES NOT HAVE THE FORCE THANK GOODNESS WAS REALLY WORRIED THERE

sabines art skills are relevant. love it.

yeah thats it i think. sry if you were here as an optimist.

Cons:

NO REX WHERE IS HE

they've got to stop stabbing people with lightsabers without killing them. star wars medicine was already inconsistent, this is pushing it.

where is jacen syndulla. If ahsoka is going to take an apprentice why not him? WHY SABINE THAT MAKES SO LITTLE SENSE.

yeah going on that again. she was training to be a jedi without force. BUT WHY. Sabine has always been a Mandalorian, shes been so proud and happy to be a Mandalorian. she literally threw that away to be a jedi. she hid her armor and grew out her hair and there was no mention of her Mandalorian family? the one she reconciled with?

the casting for hera and ahsoka is not good, the makeup and prosthetics are worse than that, but worst of all they do not actually sound like the characters at all! going into those in detail:

ahsoka and hera just do not have the face shape of their counterparts. i do get that it can be difficult since no one has anime eyes that big. but the face shapes look wrong and every time i look at them it doesnt look or feel like im watching beloved characters brought to life

the prosthetics and the makeup on hera and ahsoka look like either that department got a pittance or they just didnt care that much. even simple details that wouldn't effect stuntwork. like the circle patterns on Hera's lekku, or like how Hera's lips are much too dark and Ahsoka's are much too light. Ahsoka and heras head-tails are way to short as well. if you want to explain it with stunt reasons, than why are heras so short as well? also somehow there is zero texture on hera's lekku, but Ahsoka's look like an old rubber hose that shriveled up? and her montrals are so short and point backwards. if the people making this show are going to take such beloved characters and put them in irrevocable media, these details should have been figured out! if it wasnt feasible than they should never have made it live action in the first place.

the actors for ahsoka and hera do not sound like them. i dont mean their voices sound the exact same, but i mean the inflection and the wordings sound nothing like the animation. a good actor should try to mimic that but it wasnt done. ahsoka especially had such emphatic and varying tone in clone wars and rebels, while live action ahsoka sounds like shes trying to win the stoic master of the year award.

ahsoka apparently learned an entire new lightsaber style! because she only held her lightsabers in reverse grip one. time. and also when she was a kid she was flipping circles and cartwheeling and handspringing and theres none of that here. if yoda can do it in 2008 they can figure out a way for her to do it too

listen. ahsoka has gone through way too much character development to be constantly looking like she doesnt know what shes doing. shes struggling too much in fights, and she doesnt seem to understand sabine at all. she has been a very strong character in the past, and this is because she has gone through many experiences that gave her incredible development.

the plot does not make sense. how on earth does an ancient device know where thrawn went? why is this connected to the dathomirians? are they going to bother explaining this? probably not.

#honestly at this point im disappointed #if you're looking for good things theres not much here yet. #ill hold onto hope tho #because that is what star wars is about #g gives a thought #ahsoka spoilers #ahsoka show #ahsoka show spoilers #if you have more pros by all means let me know ill edit them in

[starlightandsunshine]

So like I'm back to rewatching Charmed (1998, obviously, yay for like my first fandom ever) again for the umpteenth time, (in a randomised order, of course, because why watch chronologically like a sane person) and I was watching "That 70s Episode" and then looking at additional trivia and episode information as you do, and I came across a comment about how Magic School makes the entire plot of the episode into a plot hole or vice-versa, which just… No.

I'm not going to say that their haven't been some absolute ass-pulls in Charmed that create plot holes in earlier episodes (The cleaners vs "All Hell Breaks Loose" is technically one even though I have Thoughts on that) but the existence of Magic School is really not one of them for quite a lot of reasons that I can't be bothered to go into rn because this post is about "That 70s Episode".

Time travel in Charmed happens in an essentially fifty-fifty split between time travel that intentionally changes the past (like "A Witch in Time" and the whole s6 arc with Chris) and closed time loops/predestination paradoxes that essentially mean the whole thing was one long foregone conclusion from the start (like "All Halliwell's Eve" and also "Imaginary Fiends" if you take it from the time traveller's perspective and not like Piper's). "Forever Charmed" and "Morality Bites" are exceptions to this that sort of hang about in their own bubble for Reasons but literally every other incident even tangientially related to time travel is one of those two (time travel in Charmed is maybe something that I've put a bit too much thought into but that's a different post)

(all my thoughts on "That 70's Episode" as a closed time loop under the cut because it, uh, got really very long)

Now admittedly, I may be coming at this from a slightly different perspective since the first time I watched Charmed I did it out of order and saw a couple of the later seasons first before I watched s1, which means I already knew about magic school and was elbow deep in the shows mythology (specifically relevant here: whitelighters, which iirc hadn't really been delved into at all - I can't remember if the episode w Phoebe finding out about Leo and the little witch boy called Max was before or after this one but either way they don't really start building on whitelighters until "Love Hurts" and s2). But literally the first thing I actually thought about here was that it was a closed time loop where they basically contributed to causing the whole thing in the first place (and hey, I just remembered that there's a different time travel ep in s1 where a warlock comes from the future to change it in the truth episode, so in hindsight I was probably like "oh cool they're showing two different ways it works already").

But I mean really, lets take the time travel out of the picture for a second:

If the sisters don't travel back in time at all, how does this situation play out? Like, Patty gets threatened by a warlock into blessing a ring to give him immunity to her daughters powers and presumably goes home and tells her mother about it and then they bind the girls' powers after Phoebe is born and don't? do? Anything? About the situation. Like in the threeish years between being threatened and dying Patty never tries to do anything about this warlock that is almost definitely going to try and kill her babies? (lets be generous and say that she didn't want to do anything while pregnant, that still leaves thirteenish months between Phoebe being born and Paige's conception, and sixish months between Paige's birth and Patty's death, and even then she doesn't have to actively be doing anything to be figuring out a way to track him down and vanquish him or whatever) Penny "Battleaxe Grams" Halliwell doesn't ever go after him or try to do anything about him and for twenty-odd years just twiddles her thumbs about the situation while he visits every year??? (the very same woman who had a relationship with and then vanquished the freaking Necromancer!) Neither of them ever tell their whitelighter Sam about the whole thing (which, you know, is part of his job description), they never reach out to other witches about this dangerous warlock running around (like say the multiple canonical witches that the Charmed Ones meet that worked with one of them), they never go to the canonical magical school that presumably has plenty of competent magical beings on staff or to the Elders like "Hey you know those prophesised Charmed Ones you've been waiting for? Yeah we had to bind their powers to save them from this one warlock, if you want them to ever be able to use that power you need to help us find a way to get rid of him, K thanks"?? Like I know they're not the Power of Three babes, but come on, they're still Warren Witches and plenty powerful and competent in their own right. They've both gone after tougher opponents alone and it's not like they couldn't work together (and if your argument is "what about the sisters", like it costs zero money to ask Sam or even Victor to watch them for like an afternoon while Patty and Penny go and vanquish the active and real threat to their lives) And like after all of that, after not hunting this warlock down or telling anyone about him or doing really anything at all about the situation for over twenty years, Penny, after being diagnosed with a heart condition, doesn't then ever think, "oh hey, when I die, this one warlock's going to come after them in like twelve months at most because he keeps popping by once a year, I should do something about that, like write a note in the Book or make an addition to my will about it or something"???

Uh, no. They would not do that. That is incredibly out of character for the Halliwells that we know and love. They'd probably have spent the nine months Patty was pregnant with Phoebe figuring out how to vanquish him and destroy the ring , and then if he didn't show up right after Phoebe was born they'd have asked Sam or maybe a couple of other witches they know to keep an eye on the sisters for a couple of hours while they summon Nicholas and vanquish him while he's off guard. The whole situation is over and done with by the time Phoebe turns one and the sisters' powers don't need to be bound at all.

But when you take the time travel into account, the whole lack of proactiveness on Patty and Grams' part makes a whole lot more sense. Because after having to bless the ring and then telling her mother about it, Patty remembers the other people who knew she was pregnant, and being the very much not stupid witch she is goes "hmm, maybe there's something going on there". And then like the plot of the episode happens they steal back the ring blah blah, and lets say that when Patty unblesses it she does it with like a time delay when its first used or it uses the powers of the girls to undo the blessing or even it takes a hot minute to take effect bc like Patty said they didn't have time to test whether or not the unblessing worked or whatever - its magic, we've handwaved way worse in canon - so that Nicholas still has the two minutes of being able to blindside the girls when he first attacks them and they can't use magic that prompts them to cast the time travel spell.

The girls then get sent home and Patty gives the unblessed ring back to Nicholas without letting on that she's unblessed it, fine. But because the girls have now time travelled, Patty and Penny realise that they have to preserve the order of events that led to them time travelling in the first place. Which means that when Phoebe is born they have to bind the girls' powers. Ok fine, they do that. They raise the girls with no knowledge of magic. Except, they're not stupid, they saw how the three girls looked at Patty and how they talked about Grams but not really about their mother, and they put together that Patty dies young. So Patty puts some entries in the Book, some messages for her daughters that she's not going to get to see grow up. Information that she'd rather give them in person but that need to be recorded somewhere for them because she won't be able to - like the Demon of Fear entry, or about magic around babies and so on. She doesn't know when she dies, but she figures it's got to be before Prue is a teenager because there's a different way you look at a parent you lost in your teens to a parent you lost as a child and because if Prue was a teenager then Phoebe was at least seven or eight and the girls would have something to say about her that proves who they are rather than just the wistful looks. And Penny keeps on raising the girls and doesn't do anything about Nicholas even though he keeps coming by, and she puts the vanquishing spell in the Book for when they need it, right by the spell they'd use to go back in time. And events play out like in canon.

The time travel being a closed time loop also neatly provides a further answer that isn't just "we were afraid" for why Patty gave up Paige rather than say, binding her whitelighter powers (like she did canonically) and pretending that she was the child of someone other than Sam (like maybe a one night fling with Victor, which, hey, that's how Phoebe was conceived, it could be true for Paige too!) or even just pretending that she was adopted from a different witch. Because the sisters clearly didn't know she had trouble with pregnancy and aren't very practiced witches, they came back in time to change the past and they didn't once mention a younger sister. There was no fourth daughter that time travelled, so either the three older daughters just left their younger sister behind when trying to stop Nicholas (which, unlikely), or they don't know she exists. So Patty takes the harder option of giving Paige up rather than the selfish one of keeping her and endangering all of her daughters because as previously mentioned, she's a very smart witch and figures out that this is a choice that she already made in the future her daughters travelled from.

But what about Grams wanting to strip their powers in "Pre-Witched"? You ask. Well that's easy, Grams knows she's ill, she looks at her granddaughters who look very much like the three time travellers she met and are about the same age as them too, and figures out that she's going to die soon. Now remember, she met the sisters after they'd already been Charmed for a while and only saw them as a united front that supported each other and were a pretty good team. She didn't see all the difficult growing pains they went through at first or how it took them a minute to get their shit together as a team. So she looks around at her granddaughters, who are not just a mess, but also cannot keep it together for five minutes, or even long enough to take a picture. And she comes to the conclusion that she must have messed up somewhere, that she changed something by accident and stopped them from becoming the tight-knit sisterhood that she saw in her past and she lets her doubts take over and stop her from listening to Patty, who has faith that they'll still pull together. And then, before she can go through with it, destiny strikes, and she dies, which kicks off the events that lead to Nicholas coming to the house and finding her dead and trying to kill her granddaughters who go back in time to stop him and end up causing the whole chain of dominoes that lead to them growing up without their powers and having to time travel in the first place.

Ta-da! Closed time loop. I'm probably forgetting some things, but this was basically a rant post about how not everything big and new about magic in the back half of Charmed is a continuity screw up or ass-pull ft. one of my favourite s1 episodes

…there's also a bunch more thoughts I have about Halliwell's time travelling in general and also specifically them meeting their parents/ancestors when they're young/not yet born and how there are a bunch of repeating patterns that keep popping up surrounding it, but again, that's a different post.

#charmed #that 70's episode #1x17 #patty halliwell #penny halliwell #grams halliwell #charmed ones #time travel #meta post #maybe also slightly a rant #i have so many thoughts on time travel in charmed #but also like this episode in particular bc like #this episode is literally the thing that kicks off the stuff in the start of the show #bc without it they wouldn't only be coming into their powers now! #and there's something about closed time loops thats just #i cannot describe how much i love this episode #and how much of the stuff that happens in this episode can be linked back to later #but also don't come in here and tell me that magic school is an ass-pull bc of this episode #bc this episode answers the q of that in and of itself long before magic school was invented #i can and will happily die on this hill istg #this episode is basically a love letter to the concept of self-fulfilling prophecies #that cause the very action they tried to prevent #which #there's also a really interesting thing about how phoebe's power links in to that #but that's a different post

[gildedbarbarian]

Okay, we’re going to try this again. Critical Role has done a million things for me over the course of the 4.5 years I’ve been aware of it. I’ve attached myself deeply and unflinchingly to characters and plotlines, made and lost friends, found company when I was at my lowest, and learned how to not let loss completely wreck me. I have seen myself reflected in fuckups and godkillers, chaos-mongers and law-bearers. I have found pieces of myself in this show, one after another, that I wasn’t ever really aware that I’d lost in the first place. 

But this time, specifically, we’re talking about Opal. 

The first time I watched EXU Prime, I was in one of the darkest places of my life. I was closed off from everyone, not least of all myself, with only a vague idea of how bad things actually were for me under my mask. I couldn’t look. I didn’t dare. I wasn’t ready. So I watched it at surface level: I laughed during the pageant, I cried during the last episode. I displayed the socially appropriate level of investment in every character, every moment, every line. Like so many others, I was mind boggled by the general display of craftsmanship at the table, and by Aabria. (This was my first time really seeing her in anything at all. I’ll always be grateful for the Summer of Aabria.) I loved the series, I raved about it, and then I set it down and moved on. 

The second time I watched EXU Prime was a few months ago. Work had just started slowing down and I needed something to keep my brain occupied while I did mindless busywork at my desk. I figured why not: it had been a little over a year since I’d watched it, and I’d had fun the first time, it could only be more fun the second time, right? For the most part, I was correct. I was in stitches by the time The Crown Keepers got to breakfast in the first episode. I had so much more context for Dorian and Orym and Fearne. 

And then there was Opal. Now, in the interests of absolute transparency, Opal was a hard pill for me to swallow the first time I watched EXU Prime. She’s a masterclass in playing a character as exactly who they are without faltering, even when it’s uncomfortable. My first time around that block, I thought she was selfish and stubborn to a fault and relentlessly insecure behind the self-assured façade. I think I was right. I also think that’s why I couldn’t really look her in the eye at that time. I read once, and I promise this is relevant, that a lot of times the things that make us hate other people are the things we hate to see in ourselves. This is not always true, but it certainly was true of me with Opal. 

The real kicker is that with Opal came Ted. Ted, who I definitely considered the unheard voice of reason for her impulsive sister. Ted, who had given up so much for the safety of the one person in the world she could protect. Ted, whose sacrifice we still don’t know the extent of. Ted, who I could relate to and be unafraid of it, because she’s right and because she’d made the justifiable choices and because she was the one who got left, not the one who did the leaving. 

I was at work when it happened. I’ve gone back and scoured youtube to try to find a compilation of the Opal and Ted conversations from EXU Prime so that I could get the exact quote down word for word, but haven’t been able to find one. The gist, at least as I heard it, was this: Opal wanted distance, wanted power that was hers, wanted to be an individual without the baggage of her past weighing her down or the shadow of her sister just out of sight. She wanted to stand on her own two feet. Without help, without hinderance, without interference. She wanted to be just Opal. And Ted wanted to keep her safe. Would give anything, everything, in fact had already done so, to keep Opal safe. Because she couldn’t see herself without her, because her purpose was to protect her. Because she didn’t know how to do anything else. 

There’s this thing in therapy called inner child work, and it’s the hardest part of the healing process for me. Every step of it is painful, every Little Me I’ve had to look in the eye is a gut punch. But there’s one in particular that I’ve been ignoring willfully for years. She’s waited in my periphery, patient and resigned, for the day that I could give her even a fraction of my attention. That day was a few a months ago. 

I had to get up from my desk after the scene was over because I was beside myself. Literally having a breakdown at my desk, I rushed off to the bathroom to try to pull myself together. It wasn’t the first time, and it probably won’t be the last. Calming down took over 20 minutes of box breathing and other grounding methods, working my way back into some semblance of being present in myself.

And when I got there? All I heard was Her. Over and over again. Almost like she was screaming, like she’d been screaming for years. I’ve been holding this for too long. I can’t do it alone anymore. I need help. I need you. I did this to keep us safe, but it’s too heavy. Help me. Please. I’m afraid of what will happen if I let go. 

I was Opal. She was Ted. 

Both were me. 

I’m still figuring out what all of that means. All I know for sure is that I’m grateful: I don’t know how long it would have taken me to hear Her without Opal and Ted. It’s not easy. There are still days that I have a hard time looking her in the eye, but it’s a start that I needed to heal. 

#caro chats #critical role exu #critical role #exu prime #opal critical role #ted critical role #opal and ted #aabria iyengar #idk what else to tag this i'm still figuring it all out

[thescrapbookingscientist]

Biweekly Media Roundup

- All Saints Street (Anime) - All Saints Street is on crunchyroll now! I like how they consolidated the episodes into 6 normal length ones, as while I enjoy the theme song it's so much nicer to be able to marathon the show without having to skip past it every 3-8 minutes. A new season will be airing soon so I figured this would be a good time for a rewatch and to hop back into the comics, as last year I considered this series to be an incredibly underrated gem given how cute its art style is, how good its comedy can be, and how likable all the characters are. It helps of course that I adore monsters, and this upcoming season will be including Crystal, one of my favorite characters from the webcomic. I hope they include the running plot of Nick accidently dating his coworker as well, as any scenario involving Nick being a cringe fail pathetic mess is top tier.

- Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Video Game) - I've been aware of the shoot a man war simulator franchise that is Call of Duty for a long while now and never in a million years did I think I'd ever be interested in playing one. And I still think that, as I haven't played one and never plan to. But. Some monster-loving blogs I like have been posting a lot of monster AUs about this particular cast so I went ahead and checked out some of the relevant canon plot/character interactions that would let me understand the context of the cool art and fics that I wanted to check out. The monster ones ended up being pretty fun so I checked out some of the non-monster ones too and again, some pretty solid fan works out there.

- Nimona (Movie) - I just watched this today so I do need some time to stew on it, but my first thoughts are that it's super cute and I had a lot of fun with it. I love how it looks, Ballister's design with his big puppy eyes and wet pathetic cat energy is great as is Nimona's with her pointy teeth and fun expressions, and how odd but fun the medieval yet also futuristic setting is. It's great to see a solid mlm couple in a movie aimed towards children as typically only wlw get that luxury, and as a non-binary/trans narrative I think it works pretty well. The found family aspect between Ballister and Nimona is of course great to see as well. There are some things I think could have been executed better, I wasn't too crazy about at least 50% of the comedy and I think the movie could get a little too predicable at times, but those are pretty small complaints for what was a very cute, wholesome, and visually impressive movie.

- Heavenly Delusion (Anime) - Probably my favorite of the season, This was a really solid first season - It's an interesting world and mystery, they don't overexplain things and are good at letting moments sit, the main characters were likable, and the pacing was really good considering how often we would receive satisfying foreshadowing that answered just enough to keep us invested while opening up all sorts of new questions.

- Oshi no Ko (Anime) - Once again I find myself at a crossroads of acknowledging that a piece of media not going in the direction that I wanted it to doesn't make it bad, but also being unable to separate my feelings of disappointment on the lost potential from my feelings on the show as a whole. I did enjoy this show, and I appreciate the behind the scenes looks at celebrity culture/show business and how it doesn't shy away from the darker and commercialized nature of it all, but with it springing between a reincarnation story to a murder mystery to a revenge plot to an actor career drama to an idol show, I just never felt like the focus was a strong as it needed it to be to keep me invested in the overarching plot. The weird age gap + First love but also new mother/brother/sister thing was also. A lot. That really didn't feel necessary when they could've just made the twins oddly intelligent children and gone from there. As I said before, I do love Skip Beat style narratives of actors working out how to get into character and affect the acting of those around them, so if it keeps doing that I will be interested in sticking around, but while I like the female characters more as characters their idol storyline is far less interesting, especially given how much the narrative is pushing that being an idol and idol culture is kind of awful actually, so maybe y'all should work towards a less toxic dream. Oh well, I don't mean to be so negative, the show did a lot of interesting things, including surprisingly portraying Youtuber and steamer culture in a realistic manner, and I did quite like the pseduo-main character of Kana Arima. I'll likely watch more but it's such a weird mix of ehhhhh and ehh actually maybe? That I wouldn't really recommend it to someone who isn't warned of a lot of weird stuff in advance.

- Ranking of Kings (Anime) - In retrospect it would have been nice to know that this season was more of a "additional content leading into the true continuation of the story" rather than a true second season from the beginning, as it would have saved me from watching the whole thing through a lens of "this is nice but uh when is plot going to happen?". Separated from that I am glad I watched it, it was nice to see Queen Hilling again, they did some fun things with the animation, and the last few episodes where we got some context for the Underworld brothers and the way demons work was pretty solid.

- Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies (Video Game) - Alright, so getting back into it, the 3rd and 4th cases were pretty neat. I don't much care about the optics of HOW the murders were committed, as I feel like that aspect is far more interesting from a player standpoint when you yourself are figuring out vs the observer standpoint where you just want to see the story play out, but the characters this time were pretty fun, and I like the way the plot is progressing as far as the main characters are involved. For the 3rd case, the 3 friends all confessing to a murder they didn't commit in order to protect the other ones who they think could have done it was quite sweet and made for a good story, and for the 4th case the lesbian mad scientist robot lady Blackquill was a great addition. Going into the last section of the game I've unfortunately already been spoiled to the true culprit, but it's still very satisfying to see Athena and Blackquill and other Blackquill play off each other and deal with their trauma. I'm still excited to see how the game will end, after which I'll probably put a hold on the mainline series to look at the Investigation spin-offs before finishing up with Spirit of Justice, which a lot of people claim is the series highlight.

- Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Video Game) - Okay actually now that I'm willing to explore it more the Depths are pretty neat. Also Tulin is my son and I love him.

- Crazy Ex Girlfriend (TV) - Yup.

Listening to: Let's Get This Over With by They Might Be Giants, Read Between the Lines by Tom Cardy, Ways to Go By GroupLove, Deathly Loneliness Attacks cover by SirHamnet, LosT by Bring Me the Horizon, Comatose by Skillet, Human by Gabrielle Aplin, Good Girls and Teeth by 5 Seconds of Summer, Nothing Good by Lea Salonga, That's What I Want by Lil Nas X, After Everything You Made Me Do and I Give Good Parent from Crazy Ex Girlfriend.

#weekly roundup #my post #This is late because I am tired

[a-flickering-soul]

(fic anon here) if the other piece of feedback you got about people from outside the fandom finding it was a long two-part comment on the fic from 2-3 weeks ago that was uh also me 😅 I'm starting to realize that the way I engage with fic is kind of weird — I mostly look for short fics with interesting dynamics between characters in fandoms I'm specifically not in, because otherwise I get distracted and annoyed by how much the fic characterization of the characters usually strays from the canon characterization. (after watching the show however, I can say your characterization was dead-on, wow.)

I have been rotating that scene around in my brain for weeks now and keep coming back to your fic even as the brainrot has spread to being obsessed with the entirety of andor because god DAMN this show is good ajasklfajas I'm a little bit incoherent about it all. I just had to tell you the effect your writing has had because I am now in the depths of the most all-encompassing hyperfixation I've ever experienced in my life because of that one brilliant fic

(also would you be down to chat about bix? because it seems like you also love her as a character, and i have some very strong opinions about the way the writers treated her character in the last few episodes — they broke her down very quickly into this damsel-in-distress sort of figure without showing her strength or resistance or even allowing her resolve to be gradually broken down over time. in particular, all those scenes where they do nothing but show her suffering and helpless before cutting away to something else pissed me off a little — in a show where every single scene is so relevant to furthering the story, everything is so tightly woven and crafted, you have to put in these scenes where nothing at all happens just to remind us that bix still exists? you have that little to say about this character?? I was really disappointed that they built up this strong, bold, kind, protective, caring, resilient, badass character only to never address any of that characterization when it really counted. I also have some theories about how dedra's assertion that bix gave up all the info is completely incompatible with certain events we see in later episodes. but I also recognize it's been months since this show came out and most people who were obsessed with it then have since calmed down even though I'm late to the party and just getting started, so I don't want to bother you too much if you're not as interested in discussing it all now)

HI OMG YOUR COMMENTS LITERALLY MADE MY DAY HOLY SHIT I'm so so glad you got into Andor the show itself because it's fucking PHENOMENAL and I'm doubly flattered that you found the characterization to be spot on because I worked REALLY fucking hard on it!!!! And you're genuinely so right about Bix... they created a huge character debt with her and I kept waiting and waiting for them to pay it off and treat Bix with the same kind of complexity and depth they treated her with in the first half of the show but then it just.... never happened?? It was really perplexing to me and it seemed genuinely incongruous with the rest of the show. I am so fascinated by your theories about Bix and I would LOVE to hear them!!! Please please drop me a ping about it if you want to because I would LOVE to talk about Bix because she is my GIRL and I LOVE HER!!!!

#!!!!!! #answered #anonymous

[my-burnt-city]

I posted 335 times in 2022

That's 335 more posts than 2021!

228 posts created (68%)

107 posts reblogged (32%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@my-burnt-city

@te-pu-si-ti

@timemachineyeah

@betterversion--ofme

@hayscodeviolation

I tagged 333 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#punchdrunk - 318 posts

#punchdrunk theatre - 318 posts

#immersive theatre - 317 posts

#immersive - 316 posts

#the burnt city - 279 posts

#burnt city - 279 posts

#troy - 271 posts

#mycenae - 271 posts

#youtube - 43 posts

#the drowned man - 40 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#though if you've never seen that one neon light on the way over from mycenae to troy then you probably have no idea why this is relevant

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I am approximately three minutes away from watching an eleven year old episode of a TV show I've never watched in my entire life, for Reasons

12 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#4

tfw you're on three walk-outs from paul zivkovich and you're torn between enjoying the moment(s) vs just wishing he would Stop

12 notes - Posted August 28, 2022

#3

I keep thinking back to this old interview with Felix where he says "We want people to fall in love with them" (the cast), and the dude is clearly very good at his job because I come out of every show at least half in love with two or three cast members. So I want to know: what's the stupidest thing you ever fell in love with a Punchdrunk character/performer for?

I'LL GO FIRST, Georges Hann's Apollo scritched me on the head like I was a puppy as he swept by me one day and I haven't been the same since! Who can beat that for sheer ludicrosity?!

13 notes - Posted August 27, 2022

#2

top five characters in [insert punchdrunk show]:

5. angry man who hates the audience

4. sweet-natured waitress-type

3. woman who can't remember anything

2. flirty redhead

1. barman

14 notes - Posted August 19, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

i spend most of my time on instagram seeing what the tbc cast are up to or browsing tattoos, and i think the algorithms have finally figured me out

15 notes - Posted September 24, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #Instagram #2023 is the year we all get minotaur slash moloch tattoos bèbè!

[cyanlastride]

the colorado kid has torn through my mind over the past several hours

i was scrolling through tv shows i could watch when i saw haven. my parents watched haven when i was younger, and i remember bits and pieces of it. i was surprised, however, to see stephen king mentioned in the show summary. i read my first king book, the gunslinger, long after my parents finished haven, and before the gunslinger i really had no interest in king. now, even though ive still only read a handful of his books besides the dark tower, i jump every time i see his name, or anything nineteen.

i watched the first episode of haven with intent for the first time, and after something like 6 ad breaks decided that tv was not worth my time. also, though the show was interesting it didnt feel like king, other than it being set in maine. obviously i am no expert of what does and does not feel like king as i swore that donnie darko was a king adaptation when i watched it recently, but whatever. a quick wikipedia search confirms that only the setting and the idea of the colorado kid are king-inspired, along with a couple of references to stuff like IT. still havent read or watched IT. at the end of the day im a dark tower fan, not a king-horror fan, and surprisingly the fanbases have relatively small overlap. anyways, while im on wikipedia, i decide to quickly check out the colorado kid page.

and of course, my eyes immediately spy out the words dark tower.

"The review of The Colorado Kid in today’s issue of today's USA Today mentions that there was no Starbucks in Denver in 1980. Don’t assume that’s a mistake on my part. The constant readers of the Dark Tower series may realize that is not necessarily a continuity error, but a clue."

and just like that, im hooked. you see, im the type of nerd that grinned like a fool when i noticed the name of the bus company in the dr sleep movie. i love finding the little references and connections to the dark tower, so much so that the entire reason why i bought and read fairy tale was because i thought the staircase on the cover looked like the eye of the crimson king. the dark tower reference ending up being much more mundane in that book, but i still enjoyed myself.

so i wasnt able to sleep because i want to find my special little dark tower easter egg just for me oh boy oh boy, and now ive spent at least that last 4 hours starting and finishing the colorado kid which has left me unable to sleep because i cannot stop trying to come up with theories and trying to figure out how the fuck a starbucks existing in denver in 1980 when the first one didnt open there until 1992 on our/kings(?) level of the tower has any fucking relevance to the colorado kid who we already know exists on a different level of the tower to kings level because im assuming the forwards/afterwards are canon like they are in the dark tower books.

also, completely separate to the dark tower relevancy discussion, my main question about the colorado kid is as follows: where the hell did he get the steak from? either my man has been carrying around a cooked steak in his suit all day including into the fish n chip place, or he got it somewhere presumably after the ferry, so on the island? there cant be that many places that serve steak on the island, and with how the setting is described i find it unlikely they wouldnt be able to track down a witness who remembers an out of towner ordering a steak to go. so he was most likely given that steak by someone, someone who knew him well enough to want to give him a steak to eat with his bare fucking hands and then either purposefully doesnt speak up when he is found dead or never finds out about his death. im also willing to bet that the mysterious steak-bearing stranger saw and moved the colorado kid after he choked, because seriously if you were sitting enjoying some steak on the beach cuddled up with a trashcan one why are you rawdogging your steak next to a trashcan two when you start choking are you not going to attempt to stand, or lean over, perhaps over the trashcan, to attempt to choke out your steakbit? let gravity do some of the work, and right into the appropriate receptacle no less? like seriously my man mustve been going through something when he started choking on his steak he just sat there chilling, completely unbothered. if he was in any normal "ohgodhelpmeimchokingtodeath" position when he died he shouldve been face first in the sand. so yeah the colorado kid one hundred percent met with someone who gave him a steak, watched him choke on it, and then sat him up against a trashcan and just left.

maybe it was one of the furries or vampires or whatever. they were having some sort of fancy dinner when jake and callahan showed up, right? was that steak or human? also i seem to remember their little "come watch the humans fuck up their world lol hehe 9/11" teleport door hallway having something to do with russian currency, not sure what the connection is there but my brain seems to think theres something.

last thoughts before i give up for the night: not bothering to factcheck this but i think the dark tower series was completed in 04 and this book's afterward was dated 05 so the whole of the tower is potential context here. also the stand is one of the few other king books ive read and i think boulder colorado is important there too? its either the target city for the good survivors or the place where the sheriff comes from, i think? or maybe its the city the katet passes through in wizard and glass? i dont remember anymore my memory is awful and its late. if the kid ever went todash we at least know he started and ended on the same level of the tower cuz of his wife. the starbucks thing is bothering me too, like why is it significant that hes on another level of the tower, and one thats so similar to our own like they have starbucks during the cold war but with the way they talk about airplane regulations im assuming 9/11 still happened so it cant be that different. im starting to think that king just said that to turn people who were miffed about colorado kid onto the dark tower to increase sales or something but he posted this on his blahag so like i really doubt that.

im boutta pass out, damn you king, damn you colorado kid