#which is part of why s2 starts to feel wonky

[punkascas]

aww, man, i'm hella bummed over the news of ofmd.

i wasn't even jonesing that hard for s3 — like i'd of course watch it when it came out, but s2 reiterated and reenforced for me why i'll always choose fandom and fanworks over canon — but i feel gutted for the writers and actors. i feel grieved and jaded. and i feel aggravated that it is a familiar, well-worn groove of jaded grief over how queer stories and stories centred on non-white cis characters with diverse casts don't get their chance to flourish and grow. they don't feed the capitalist beast, even though they absolutely fckin do you're just dumb media executives. those stories are not as easy to market; not the sure, quick buck. not the stories for 18 – 25 year old straight white boys you can peddle to advertisers and that look good in quarterly-projection presentations.

i'm sad because the cast really seemed to get on. really seemed to have one of those rare mixes of chemistry and off-screen friendship. and i want to see them hang out and be creative together and fall further in love with now they portray found family on screen with so much ease and sincerity and full of genuine joy.

i'll miss them. i'll miss watching them play their characters. they seem to love them as much as and for the same reasons that we love those characters.

and to a lesser extent i'm a little disappointed to never find out what the plan would've been for s3, where djenks originally had the characters end up, how and if the creative decisions in s2 would've been addressed. fandom will of course find answers to this, and i know i'll probably think those stories are better if i could compare because i always do, but there's still a part of me that wants to know what djenks and the writing team and the cast would've done.

that all said, a part of me finds it extremely awkwardly morbidly hilarious that the s2 ending is now the official end. the ending that i can only read as a fascinating-yet-distressing lovecraftian horror story waiting to happen. like, not great as a final note due to how much it upset and divided the fandom. i wish it had been an ending that sparked opportunities for community-building and excitement and creativity that comes from a place of wanting more rather than feelings of betrayal or discomfort or creativity that comes from the need to process or to fix or to ignore.

but also as someone who enjoys absurdist dark humour, it's kind of perfect to me. the ending is an amazing (accidental) representation of schrödinger's cat of a conclusion. and i love it.

like, you can read the ending as happy. the main couple is together; the crew has their freedom and found family and can continue a life of adventure without the drama ed or stede can cause. izzy… whatever, i guess. whatever people who are cool with izzy's fate wanted for him.

or you can read the ending as, like: stede, run! you just shacked up with a known mentally and emotionally unstable guy who just very traumatically (and violently) ended a longterm codependent relationship. with the fresh grave of your boyfriend's ex right out front. because both of them are dudes that literally hoard each other's corpses because the codependence and obsessive possession just runs that deep. and you made these life choices while on an isolated spit of land with no one else around but the sea and a rundown shack whose aesthetics are straight out of a horror film. and that's implied to smell like death in one of your last lines of dialogue ever. nothing good will come of this, my guy.

if you know me, you know which reading i'm taking and running with.

#the gay pirate show #ofmd #ofmd spoilers #sort of #otp: divorced in a married state #edizzy: love means never having to let go of your rotting corpse #i have a lot of other thoughts about how they accidentally set up character arcs and character backstories #in a way that positioned the narrative beats the characters needed to complete their arcs #in direct opposition to the story and plot beats they originally meant to tell #which is part of why s2 starts to feel wonky #what the characters need based on their flaws and emotional wounds to self-actualise and grow by the end of the story #is not the story they intended to set up or thought they were writing #so all you can do with your characters is stall their development #or regress them #or sweep things under the rug #or change them in ways that feel unsupported and ooc #maybe i'll write a mini meta on this one day for my own sake just to organise my thoughts #ofmd critical #just in case #but no seriously you're telling me i'm supposed to root for stede and ed #when ed and izzy are so obsessed they can't even let go of each others' dead bodies #up to and including burial in a shallow grave in your garden highly visible from the front windows of your love nest with your new paramour #this is a red flag stede #this is the textbook definition of a red flag #adorable insane fucked up little freaks (edizzy) (affectionate) #kat talks

[noneorother]

All the music you didn’t hear: The Good Omens soundtrack is lying to you. *Part 1*

The Bonkers Meta Series part 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I so rarely get a chance to misuse my experience in classical music, but here we are. When I realized on my most recent watch-through of the series that the David Arnold score was brilliant, but also really wonky in some parts and I couldn’t put my finger on why, @embracing-the-ineffable suggested I listen to the album soundtrack to compare.

And when I tell you what I found hidden in there, you’re going to need Eccles cakes...

1) The Song is the Clue

So right up top we have this banger. The 12th track on the album is the orchestral backdrop to the scene in the Job minisode where Aziraphale reveals Crowley’s crow/goats. The duration is 2:22 (the only track with multiples on the album), and if you look at the track by itself it doesn’t mean much. But the song just before it is actually from this fucking scene:

You know, the one where there’s a song that’s a clue to a mystery. Except Clue is capitalised, and Aziraphale pronounces it. I’ve seen guesses that this is a reference to the movie Clue, but I would put a lot of money on the fact that we are supposed to read the title of the song currently playing at that moment in the show *as a Clue*, which is super convenient, because the word Clue is capitalized in the track listing. 

Seems like the overlords of Good Omens have a message for us : The song is the Clue. It’s what God wants. Cool cool cool. WHAT SONG?

2) Symmetry in all things 

Before I straight up tell you, we have to go back and look at season 1.

Now I’m far from the first to notice tons of parallels between the story, details and even lines in both seasons. It got me thinking that maybe there are some fun synch-up parallels between the two season’s soundtracks, seeing as they are both 6 episodes long. Here’s the end of S1 and then S2

Oh that’s a bummer, I thought to myself. 

They don’t even add up to the same number, or playtime, and neither of them is exactly 60 tracks. But do you want to hear a secret? S2 is actually missing 3 tracks on the album. And because there are 2 discs in S2 (cute), the numbers of the tracks start over again from 1. Remember how much God likes sevens? Check out where all the weirdness is happening in disc 2 (I’ve added the missing track listings in red to add context):

After checking each track with the show and listening side by side (for reasons that will become clear in another post) I can definitively say that there is something *very weird* going on at the end of episode 4. 

First is track 7, Zombie dressing room, which seems to actually reach over two distinct scenes of the photo evidence in the dressing room and then Shax in hell even though it only has one title.

But *between* these two scenes we get an eerily silent wine date with Aziraphale & Crowley.

There’s really no music or even sound here besides the dialogue and room tone (until after the cheers), and it seems like a very intentionally silent version of a ritz date from season 1.

My best guess is that we are supposed to divide that track into two tracks of 7, before and after the date to get a second track 7. Or maybe the silent one is missing music? The third track number 7 is the weirdest one. It’s this scene here, when Nina parks her bike, and Aziraphale parks the car at the end of S2E4.

If you take a close listen to the music, it’s a jaunty little piece, with an oom-pah base in 3 ⁄ 4 time. The thing is, this music does not exist in any Good Omens album. Please feel free to correct me, but I’ve tried to find any part of any song that this could even be a reprise of, and I Shazammed it to be sure it wasn’t anything else. This song does not exist anywhere except in this scene. (It quickly morphs into a reprise of the original theme once Nina leaves Aziraphale). It’s an invisible song.

So we have 3 tracks at the end of S2E4: a long one, a silent one and an invisible one. Only one of which is numbered 7, but that all fit into that place in the track listing.

Which, when we add the two extras to the original total of fifty-nine we get... sixty-one! Hey wait a minute.

How are we going to get to 62?

3) The real missing track. 

So the real reason we had to go back to the S1 album was because it contains the missing track that God is talking about. Let’s compare the last tracks on each album.

I’ve highlighted the mismatch between the in-show music and the album in S2, which means I had to add A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square back into the S2 album because guess what, it’s not in the S2 album. Even though it plays in the show. 

You want to know how not in the album it is? Amazon had to track it in the show as a season 1 song. They had to give Tori Amos credit for her song on Good Omens in the X-ray bonus features because that’s how not in the album this song is.

So my fellow beings, if the song is the Clue, then It’s what God Wants.

And if God wants a happily ever after with Aziraphale and Crowley on their own side, then by Job, I think Neil is going to give it to her.

-----------

And there's more where that came from! Part 2 coming shortly.

#good omens meta #art director talks good omens #go season 2 #good omens 2 #go2 #good omens prime #good omens season two #go meta #good omens season 2 #go3 #good omens 2 meta #crowley x aziraphale #aziraphale #anthony j crowley #good omens spoilers

[mobius-m-mobius]

Pt 2:

(Okay I'm sorry this length is actually a bit absurd. As you can see my mind is SPINNING and this may have gotten. Out of hand. Please do feel free to ignore me, I promise I won't take it personally 😆😆)

So here’s the thing. In Loki and Sylvie’s first full episode together, I read the nexus event as being Loki experiencing self-love for once in his existence. Until events unfolded and I sighed and resigned myself to the inevitable heterosexuality of fit all. But.

Consider it from Loki’s perspective. You find yourself caring for this person who is and isn’t yourself. And it’s nice, at the end of all things, to care. Then the most emotionally intelligent man you know is insisting you’ve fallen in love with her. And gosh golly gee that is NOT what you thought was going on there, but you’re new to this whole letting yourself care schtick—how would you know?

Then, a miracle—against all the odds in the universe, Mobius decides to trust you after all. To fight by your side.

And within seconds, it gets him killed.

It feels like everything is over, and you don’t understand why. But it isn’t. The world is still falling apart, and Sylvie is still trapped, and whatever the way in which you care for her, you do care. And Mobius—he is dead. And nearly the last thing he said to you was that he thinks the love between you and Sylvie could save the universe. So what else can you do? You have to try. For both of them.

So you go to Sylvie, and it’s hard to get the words out, and it doesn’t feel quite right, but you try to tell her—

Your maybe universe-saving hopefully-actually-true love confession is cut off, and things get a bit wonky after that. And in the meantime there is another miracle—Mobius is alive after all.

But the universe still isn’t saved. And Mobius isn’t dead, but you thought he was, and you’ve been so viscerally reminded that to love is to lose. And anyway—before his seeming death the last thing Mobius said was that if he could go anywhere, it would be to his own life. Those scant moments when it seemed you might move forward side by side were illusion indeed. Mobius has a life of his own, in which you have no part.

So you turn to this other self, and say, ‘will you stay will me, after?’

She isn’t you. But perhaps she’s near enough to stay. No one else will.

Then you have the Sylkie kiss, which frankly imo barely counts as evidence on its own. When Sylvie finds out about Mobius’ nexus event theory she immediately goes to Loki to say ‘yeahhhhhhh so lets not do that bud … hey did you notice how much Mobius cares about you? 😃” Lok got a little confused, but Sylvie doesn’t seem, to me, to ever have thought her feelings for Loki were romantic. And when she kisses him, it’s a betrayal. Giving him what he seems to want as a distraction for the sake of her own ends.

And so he can’t trust her, and she won’t trust him, and there is no safety in running to himself to avert his loneliness. And he kissed her, and the universe isn’t saved.

And the lonely god runs straight on back to Mobius. And he might have still been sorting his head out a bit in the first two eps of s2, yet. He never leaves Mobius’ side again. Not until it is only way to save him. Not until he has spent centuries searching desperately for a way to stay by his side.

Wouldn't dream of ignoring you, absolutely love hearing the thought process people go through while watching or rewatching the show (starting another rewatch of my own soon!) and found myself noticing many of the same things you've mentioned especially regarding Sylvie as a representation of Loki coming to terms with self love for the first time which then led to the actualization of forming the kind of emotional connection and openness with Mobius that romantic love can build on.

Will reply to both parts of your ask here (linking part 1 just in case anyone hasn't seen it) and absolutely believe you're right in that while Loki would've always had potential escape from the methods and mistrust of the TVA in the back of his mind, he was very rapidly starting to separate Mobius from being part of the collective because there were too many genuine moments building between them to ever be in line with what the TVA would normally allow.

(adding a read more bc, well, it's me so we know this is getting long)

The shot in Roxxcart that lingers on Loki watching Mobius walk away after their discussion of trust always stuck with me because at that point I was under the assumption Loki was grappling with awareness the mission could be an opportunity of escape and for the first time didn't actually *want* to leave but had no idea how to process the feelings that had developed from being in a partnership of mutual respect and further taken a hit with the reminder that Mobius is still a major part of the TVA, and no one at the TVA will ever fully trust him.

Funnily enough even though it's kind of a running joke that Mobius had fallen for Loki before they even met (and he absolutely had 😅), the fact that it really was something more always came across as almost subconscious for him?? Loki knew what they had but panicked, never having experienced anything of that level before and not knowing what to do with any of it while Mobius has repressed his feelings about, well, everything for so long just to cope with life at the TVA it's hard for him to picture anything outside their rule.

I never saw Loki taking off after Sylvie as anything more than the chance to escape what could, or in his mind at that moment couldn't, grow with Mobius while taking a perfect opportunity to explore curiosity on his part as to who this is, whether she's useful, and how she connects to being a Loki and from that point on we continue to see in his interactions with Sylvie they mirror each other at various stages of life.

If anything his clear hesitation at leaving Mobius definitely made the betrayal sting that much more, which is why Mobius lashed out so openly during the next interrogation without even bothering to hide his hurt and I've always thought the moment where Mobius calls him out for being a bad friend in front of the guards is when it actually clicks with Loki that he may have ruined something big, something important between them if Mobius is willing to not just admit to them having a real connection in front of people who would almost certainly report something like that but consider him a friend to have trust in for the time in his life. So he risks it all trying to convince Mobius to trust him one more time and thinks he failed like usual, only to have Mobius come back with faith in who he can be, faith Loki doesn't feel he deserves but gladly takes which leads directly to Mobius getting pruned trying to protect him.

And I love how you phrased this section because exactly, Loki is so completely lost and torn apart in a way like never before after watching Mobius die. Sylvie is the only anchor to anything left, and Mobius had just (misguidedly, but still lol) told him the two of them could make a difference so that's exactly what Loki tries to do but every time he attempts to involve some level of emotion like the possible confession before also getting pruned or discussing their nexus event it's immediately cut off and for good reason; because that's not who those feelings are meant for. It's important to note as well that when Sylvie tells Loki how much Mobius cares about him, it isn't brushed aside or joked about but instead allowed to land and breathe in that moment because they know how true it is, but also that Loki isn't ready to face that yet.

Then at the citadel (and didn't s2 go a long way toward erasing pretty much all the implications meant here besides the fact that they'll never see eye to eye 😂) Loki and Sylvie immediately clash, with both of them openly wondering why they can't trust each other. Loki's frustration is clear because if he had been talking to Mobius instead they could take some time so things wouldn't have reached this point but he isn't, so he and Sylvie come to blows.

In my opinion Sylvie had never seen Loki in a romantic light either or even wanted to consider the possibility, but she did notice his constant struggle to reconcile feelings that did exist for Mobius and took advantage as a distraction and mirror to the Roxxcart grocery store divorce which leaves Loki confused and alone, processing what's just happened as he realizes despite everything his trust in Mobius has never wavered and never will. He races towards him only to finally know what it does feel like to look into his eyes and find that trust fully missing, so once he gets his Mobius back he spends almost every moment of s2 as close to his side as possible until he's forced to give him up, but as you said not until he's exhausted centuries seeking a way to stay. It's clear both of their endings are to be left wanting and waiting which is the most tragic way to have Lokius confirmed but we can only hope sooner rather than later they have a chance to work their way back to each other 🥰

#congrats on taking the title of longest ask! you beat out a previous night at the museum one that i really thought would hang in there 😂💖 #this was tons of fun to read and reply to so tysm for sharing your thoughts and i've always felt the reason lokius is such a strong pair #is because even in a limited series they actually had time to sit on their feelings and process what they WANT to mean to each other #and once they've figured it out you see right away in s02e01 you can't part them their devotion to each other is like none other 🥺 #loki spoilers #ask

[paint-music-with-me]

I just watched a Steve Harrington edit and now my brain is fucking racing

In this edit, it was more focused on Steve from s1 and s2 and how his character has developed since then. But the part that stood out to me the most was when Tommy H called out to Steve after their fight, "That's right, Harrington. Run away just like you always do!" Then it was cut to Steve running to his car after seeing the Demogorgon in the Byers house where Nancy and Jonathan were abt to fight it. And ofc as they say, the rest is history.

So watching this, I was reminded of how this was also a part of Eddie's schtick/"arc" for s4: running away and staying.

It threw me off how contrasting this was compared to Steve's arc of running away and staying. I mean the comparison is overlapping where a guy who has this front to others is now completely shattered by a string of events that put into question their own sense of self, thus they ran away so when put on the lines to do something - to help/protect someone - they made a decision to stay. Ofc the biggest contrast is that one lived and the other died.

Idk where I'm going with this tbh but I can't help thinking several strings of thoughts:

1) why did it have to be death as a final option for Eddie's decision? Like yes, protect Dustin as best he can (which he did!) but running away for Eddie doesn't make him any less worthy of a person! Like compared to Steve (who was at the time running away from facing his feelings/problems head-on), it's reasonable for Eddie to run after Chrissy died or to run once grabbing the demobats' attention. It just...didn't have to end that way for him.

2) is Eddie's ending somewhat of a play on Steve's arc? I mean jokes aside, Steve and Eddie are Dustin's role models who on the surface appear like total opposites and yet...

3) if Steve got to spend more time with Eddie, if EDDIE DIDNT STEER THE CONVO TOWARDS NANCY IN THE UPSIDE DOWN WOODS, then maybe -just maybe- Steve would've opened up about his experience abt running away - "Give yourself a break, man." Then they'd be level - they'd understand each other. Maybe, just maybe, as Steve walks up the steps into the Creel house, a sense of foreboding sinks into his skin as he turns to see the cloud of demobats follow the song and he has to make a choice. To stay to protect Nancy or run to Dustin and Eddie. To run or to stay.

I mean, you could take this as a Steddie post if you want but can you imagine the dynamic that could've shifted if Steve ran to Eddie (and Dustin)? Like Steve leaving (and maybe Nancy nodding to him, resolutely) is symbolic of his recent arc: his relationship with Nancy bc let's face it, he's been dragging that with him ever since s2. He needs to drop that weight (and by extension, so should Nancy). (Also I can't rmr but was Steve absolutely necessary to be w/ Nancy and Robin to smoke Vecna?)

Then Steve coming back for Eddie could be the wonky ass message of whatever this show is trying to go for (I won't actually try to think they are bc let's face it- they arent but I need meaning) which is: you are not alone. Steve has been where Eddie was before and he knows if possible, self-sacrifice for those kids would the most obvious choice because they are fucking worth it. And he knows how much Eddie means to Dustin and he wants to at least do this for him (and also maybe because he's starting to like this so-called Munson Freak) so when he finally makes it back, he sees Eddie on the bike, finds a secure hiding place and gestures for Eddie to come. They make it out alive and hold out strong. Gasping for breath, sweat across their brows, an exhausted half-assed smile on their faces - "didnt i tell you to make him pay, Harrington?" "not if you weren't around to see it, Munson."

#as you can see - i am writing this at 1am on a wednesday #great - just what i needed #why am i still in a chokehold? #let me sleep! BRAIN LET ME SLEEP! #steddie #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #nancy wheeler #steve x eddie #the fruity four #and i just found some time loop steddie fics and im going to fucking dieeee #i need more angst righr now #why? bc i am a sadomasochist to myself #wonderful #blabber time #please ignore me #but also pay attention to me cuz this made my brain hurt and i want validation

[set-phasers-to-whump]

i'll be right beside you now, and i'll keep you warm

prompt: falling through the ice

whumpee: john reese

fandom: person of interest

hi! here's another poi fic (i'm still only on s2 so if characterization is a bit wonky we know why) anyway this is kind of pre-ship john/harold but also not necessarily. idk. i never know lol. hope you like it!! (title from into the storm by banners)

At around 3:00 on a frigid, damp January morning, John Reese is pushed off of a pedestrian footbridge that crosses a frozen lake in Central Park. 

John orients himself in the air during the few seconds of his fall, aiming his shoulder at the ice in order to tuck and roll. 

His shoulder hits the hard ice and he does start to roll, and then there’s a loud crunching and cracking sound and before he can react, the ice splinters beneath him and he’s plunged into the freezing water. 

Certain things are harder to deal with. Things like gunshot wounds and torture - you’re prepared for those. And then you experience them once or twice in the field, and you’re ready for the pain and can mitigate the shock. 

Crashing through ice and into freezing water is not something that John has ever prepared for. The cold takes his breath away, and his clothes quickly grow heavy, dragging him under. There is hardly any light coming from above the water’s surface, and he can’t tell which way is up. 

His muscles are all tensed up but he’s shaking at the same time. He can’t breathe and his chest hurts and for that matter so does his shoulder. But he knows how to survive without breath, at least for a little while. He forces the instinctive, animalistic, afraid part of his brain to calm down, and looks for a way out. 

The faint glow of street lights reflects around him, seeming to come from all directions at once. But if he focuses his eyes, as much as he’s able to while underwater, he can see which lights don’t seem to be reflecting. From this, he knows which direction is up, and he swims. 

He reaches out a hand when he nears the surface and comes into contact with what feels like a sheet of solid ice. But his impact with the surface of the lake must have destroyed a fairly large amount of this ice, so he carefully swims around the area, hands pressed to the ice above him, until at last there’s a break in it, and one of his hands sticks out into the air. 

He swims upwards, and at last his head breaks the surface. He sucks in a deep gasping breath that burns his chest like fire with none of the warmth. 

John hauls himself up out of the water slowly and carefully. His palms get scraped up on the rough, shattered edges of the ice, and he can feel the warmth of his own blood against his freezing skin. 

He keeps himself low and flat on the ice, inching forwards on his elbows until he’s fully out of the water. From there, he army-crawls towards the shore, stopping every few seconds when the ice creaks and groans ominously below him. 

He makes it to shore without falling through again, and at long last hauls his tired, aching, freezing body onto dry land. He allows himself a single second of doing nothing, of lying there flat on his stomach, shivering, breathing hard and struggling not to start coughing. 

Then he’s back into action. He looks around. His target - the man he’d been pursuing, the man he’d gotten into a fight with on the bridge, the man who’d pushed him over - is nowhere to be seen. The park is completely deserted. Only the quiet sounds of the city and the faint rustling of the wind tell him that anything else exists. 

He needs to find his target again. But he’s soaking wet and at least a little bit bloody, and his electronics have surely all been ruined by his plunge into the lake. He has to go back to the library before he can do anything else. 

And so he gets to his feet. His body protests - it’s so cold - but he pushes past it. He’s used to this kind of thing. He has to keep going. 

He walks. Coordination is difficult with how hard he’s shaking. His lungs are burning. But it’s not that bad - he’s weathered far worse. This is only a bit of cold. 

He staggers through the city like a drunk man, like a dying man, and after an eternity of walking, the library comes into view. He has never been so glad to see it. 

And just like that, he falls. His foot catches on a curb and his reflexes are too slow to stop himself and then he’s sprawled out on the sidewalk, thoroughly exhausted and only a step away from unconsciousness. He doesn’t have the strength, the coordination, the breath, to get back up. 

He lies there on the cold sidewalk, shivering, feeling himself slipping closer and closer to unconsciousness, unable to do anything against it. 

And then there are hands on his shoulders - it takes him a long time to realize this, their presence all but unnoticeable over the sheer coldness. 

“John!”

It’s this, more than the hands themselves, that really gets through to him. His name. The concern with which it’s uttered. 

He lifts his head and sees him, half illuminated by a flickering street light. 

“Hey, Harold,” he says, or at least tries to say. His tongue doesn’t want to obey his brain. Everything is just numb. 

“We need to get you inside. Can you stand?”

He doesn’t know. He should be able to. He has to be able to. 

Finch’s presence helps. Gives him a bit of strength. And so he shoves himself up off of the ground, his already-raw palms scraping against the concrete. Finch keeps a hand on his arm, helping as much as he’s able to. 

John makes it to his feet. He’s still shaking and it’s hard to balance, but Harold is here and the library is close by and so everything will be alright. He tells himself this as he walks, slowly and deliberately and with Harold’s hand on his arm, the whole way back. 

Inside, the library is almost painfully warm. Harold guides John through the halls to a bathroom, which at some point or another has had a shower installed. 

“Take off your wet clothes, please,” Harold says, and there’s a brusque note to his voice that doesn’t entirely cover up the way it trembles. 

John does nothing for a second, just stands and watches Harold turn on the shower, mourning the loss of the hand on his arm. 

And then the orders he’s been given sink into his brain, and he slowly begins to undress, peeling off his soaking suit. 

By the time he’s gotten his wet clothes off, the shower is ready. 

“It’s not too warm,” Harold says, looking respectfully away from him. “Your body needs to get reacclimated to the heat. Take it slow, and turn up the temperature when you feel ready. I’ll be outside.”

And with that, he turns and walks away, pulling the door closed but not entirely shutting it. 

John steps into the shower. Even this barely lukewarm water stings his cold skin. He forces himself to endure it, and after a moment it becomes bearable, almost pleasant. He turns the temperature up slightly, then sinks to the floor and leans against the shower wall, where he slowly and carefully cleans the blood off of his palms. 

The warm water flows over him, and slowly, after a few more temperature increases, John stops shivering. The warmth permeates him down to the bones, and when he at last stands back up to turn off the water, he’s pleased to note that the majority of his coordination has returned. 

He gets out of the shower and dries himself off, noting with some surprise that there are fresh clothes on the counter. He doesn’t remember if they had been there before, doesn’t recall Harold coming in with them. This is worrying. He should know. 

But he doesn’t, and he’s exhausted, so he can only worry about this particular problem for so long. Besides, wherever the clothes came from, they’re warm and soft and fit him exactly, even though he’s never seen them before. He gets dressed quickly, then pushes out through the door and into the hallway. 

Harold is there to meet him, and he looks almost pleased. 

“You look much better,” he says.

John nods. “I need to…need to go back out and -”

Harold holds up a hand, and John stops talking. “You’re not going anywhere. Detective Fusco will take care of your assailant, and, if you’re feeling better, we can resume work tomorrow or the day after.”

“But -”

“John. I found you nearly unconscious in the middle of the sidewalk. Fifteen minutes ago you were fairly hypothermic, and you look like you’re two seconds away from falling asleep. You are going to rest and recover. Myself and the detectives can keep things running for at least a day.”

And with that, Harold puts his hand back on John’s arm - he can actually feel the contact, the warmth of it now - and leads him to a bedroom. 

It’s the room John sometimes uses, at times when the two of them don’t leave the library for days on end. He likes this room. It’s secure. There is a thick comforter on the bed and in the mornings the sunrise pours through the little window and colors the room pink and orange and yellow.  

Harold doesn’t fully let go of John’s arm until he’s under that comforter, which feels even warmer than John remembers it being. Immediately he is drawn towards sleep. 

This is...this is...it’s nice. It’s so nice. The warmth and the familiarity and Harold’s hand on his arm and the clothes - sweatpants and a t-shirt and a hoodie and socks, none of which he’s seen before but which were clearly bought for him, and not for working, either - these are not things he’s used to. These are the kinds of things he hasn’t had in years. The kinds of things he isn’t supposed to want, shouldn’t be allowed to have. 

He can’t quite understand it. Harold doesn’t need to do this. Obviously he needs John alive and well, but this is more than that. This is comfort and care and it’s nice. 

It has been a very long time since someone was nice to him like this. It settles over him like another blanket, foreign and heavy but warm. 

He likes this. Even if he doesn’t deserve it. Even if he shouldn’t want it. 

“Sleep well, John,” Harold says softly. 

“Goodnight, Harold,” John mumbles, and he falls asleep to the thought of showers and blankets and what it means to feel safe and what it means to feel at home.

thanks for reading! hope you liked it and hope you had a good day <3

#bad things happen bingo #falling through the ice #person of interest #john reese #cold #wet #cared for #comfort #my writing #i say things #hypothermia #sort of. idrk on this one. #anyway it snowed today so exciting lovely fun had a blast... #loving life truly. much love to u all <3<3

[canonicallysoulmates]

J2 Gold Panel Vegascon 2022

Jensen whispers something to Jared and Jared strokes his arm, and the panel has not even started yet 😍

The very first thing the boys talk about is Jensen directing Walker! Jared says that it was pretty awesome to get to spend time with Jensen on set and it was a lot of fun; they share how the crew was so confused by the way they communicate because Jensen would go to Jared and be like “you know that line” and like look at him and Jared would immediately understand and then Jensen would go back to directing like normal, and the crew would be left wondering what the hell just happened. Or Jensen would tell Jared to turn left and Jared would just do it and the crew would be left wondering why he asked him to turn left. Which makes Jared mention that he’s robot-turning right that morning because he “slept wrong”....all I’m gonna say is I’ve never seen two people look so pleased about “sleeping wrong” and waking up sore from it 😏

Jensen said directing was a good time, and that Jared has a good thing going on with Walker 🥺

First question of the panel is…who usually wins when Jensen plays golf with Karl Urban, and have he and Jared recently done a bicep comparison? Jensen says he left that physique back in Toronto, Jared says he has long arms so he doesn’t do biceps that Jensen probably still has him on that; as for the first question Jensen says the first time he and Karl played they were tied and he ended up winning by one stroke on the 18th which felt great cause he was the new guy beating the lead, and as he played more and more he got better. Chace Crawford (another actor on The Boys) would join them sometimes and Chace and him were more evenly matched. x

Was there a moment where they felt like they knew their character and could just turn it on, and knowing their characters so well for so many years what challenges did that present when playing new characters after spn? Jared says that when it comes to episodic tv shows, it’s wonky for a while because everyone is trying to figure out what works and while he had a good idea about who Sam was from the beginning he was learning how to tell that story so for him it wasn’t till probably s4 that he felt like he had a good grasp of the character.

Jensen says that they had a pretty good idea of who Sam and Dean were right out of the gate but it wasn’t until they really settled in to the characters and the story that it became second nature. He feels like he got to explore a lot of Dean in s1 and then he got to explore it in a different way in s2 because the character motivations changed in s1 Dean was all about finding his dad but once John died he didn’t wanna keep hunting and Sam is the one who had to push him to continue on in s2, so when they played with the different character motivations that’s when they really got to unpack the brothers and settle in. How he was going to shake Dean when playing him had been second nature for so long had been a concern he had, that he would fall back on playing Dean when doing new characters, and he was unsure if that’s something that came across when he was playing Soldier Boy; he shares that after he had done a few eps Kripke send him a message saying that the best compliment he could give him is that him and Phil Sgriccia (who was working on post-production on some of the current eps) had stopped referring to him as Jensen and certainly not as Dean but were now only referring to him as Soldier Boy. x

A fan asked if Jared’s kids have seen Uncle Jensen on Wishbone. I saw part of the answer to this on twitter and I was so confused so I looked up what Wishbone is, and if like me you’re confused don’t worry I’m gonna tell you. Wishbone was a kids show in the mid 90’s that aired on PBS and Jensen was in one episode. Jared says they haven’t, that he doesn’t think even he has seen it but that he will be looking it up tonight- sir the fact that you knew what this fan was referring too and even knew it aired on PBS tells me that you have in fact seen it. x

Jensen was asked about a line Christian Kane said in the ep he guest starred in s15 (“You can't just sit around lip-synching "Eye of the Tiger" while no one's watching.”) and whether it was ad-libbed or scripted and if they sang live or pre-recorded. Jensen was confused at first because the fan just said Kane not Christian Kane so Jensen thought they meant C-A-I-N not K-A-N-E. He says the line was scripted. And that the singing had been done in a recording studio and then that track was placed in the episode but it was him and Christian singing and the band was formed by crew members of the show. x

Of the characters they got to play on spn, outside of Sam and Dean, which did they find harder, easier, or had more fun playing? Jared says soulless!Sam because of the challenge, and that he had a great time playing soulless!Sam. Jensen says Michael was fun, he wishes he had gotten to do that longer, and demon!Dean was also fun but one of his favorites is purgatory!Dean. x

A fan had a shirt on that said Bride on it because she’s getting married soon, but at first Jensen thought it said birdie and he was confused and the fan’s friend goes “you have a golf obsession” but the boys don’t hear her well and think she said he has a balls obsession omg 😂

The question the fan wanted to ask is if he were able to win only one Oscar for what would it be: Acting, directing, or producing? The first answer Jensen gives before the fan gives him options to pick from is sound design! But from the options given he picks acting. He also says he’s not in the profession to win accolades, he's just in it because he loves it that he’d be perfectly happy with never winning one. But if he did, it’d be nice! And he mentions that the night before at the event him and Jared were at (aka the ufc fight) that they were sitting almost arms length of Jared Leto who’s an actor he really admires and he kept looking over at him. The fan asks Jared what his answer would be and Jared says producing because he enjoys it more and is more confident in his storytelling abilities as a producer than he is as an actor. x

If they could pick any other character to play besides Sam and Dean who would it be? For some reason they go kinda blank at this question and then Jared says he’ll answer for who he would have liked to see Jensen play, and says he would have liked to see Jensen play John. Jensen says he’d like to see Jared play Charlie. x

Fan wanted to know if they have any new dad jokes. Jensen says Jared’s jokes are filthy 😂 They can’t remember one right away so the fan if they have one, the fan says the one about the punchline if you’ve never heard it that’s what timestamps are for but that makes Jared remember one, he says “I’m a man of few words” and then walks away from the mic, I hate that both those jokes got a chuckle out of me. x

Final question! Favorite bad guy or monster kill? Jared says that for some reason he’s thinking about the flamethrower they used in Bugs, idk Jared, maybe it’s because Jensen looks like a bumblebee and one of the things y’all remember most about filming that ep were the bees but anyways they don’t think they could do that now a days because it was literally an aerosol can with a lighter. Jensen says the vamp kill, and they demonstrate the process that would go into getting that done.

And then Jared says his favorite death is “do these tacos taste funny?” that he’ll find himself saying it while he’s eating tacos and it makes him chuckle. x

I really enjoyed this panel, the boys were in such a good mood and kept making each other smile and laugh through out it ❤

J2 Gold Panel Vegascon

#j2 tinhat #i'mma get some sleep and i'll be back with the main panel post ;) #mine

[stray-tori]

TPN Vol 8 - Chapters 66-70 Thoughts

[we're already on vol 9 but I'm slow with compiling]

I know I always rag on the "cop out" deaths and it is true that no corpse no dead, and I am curious if there will be any more worldbuilding regarding Lucas' survival (hello deus ex machina person) but uh. Idk. I'm sure it has a point and it makes sense in universe (having him be the reason for the knowledge among GP kids is good) but it just feels a little. Eh. Like it feels like paddling back on a small part of geezers guilt and feelings. In part it also feels like a "reward" for choosing the heroes moral side and going to help save Emma (why ever that happened - ig bc Gilda would blow up the shelter if he doesn't so. YAY).

...

Obviously the development is still his, and he obviously isn't expecting to find anyone alive there, but ig i felt like he was leading up to... healing more through the kids and not one epic Emma speech and "oh your one friend is alive btw" reveal later on. It feels like a spark of hope and happiness for him that I'm not sure if was needed narratively. He already decided he wouldn't harm them.

Like maybe they handle it very differently so i might be jumping the gun here but idk. It just feels a little... weird to me. Probably in a similar way how speeches about Norman hurt but also kind of get that "well uh about that...." Air once you know. I feel for the characters and their separation but it doesn't have the same weight it could have anymore.

In theory it reminds me a bit of the whole gate reveal structure in s2. With a setup being built up or established and a reveal just going "nvm that's not what we're doing".

It makes sense, I'm just not a huge fan of what it does for me for previously established things.

But i guess writing wise it puts its cards on the table with small scale Lucas and then Norman haha.

.

I find it rly funny how much the arc sort of mirrors the s2 arc so far (character assumed dead is alive, new cast of demon kill children introduced, a plan to kill demons).

Ig that might be intentional, for all intents it's a good method of conveying character change. Or different specifics or how things might be judged differently with different specifics (like hunting for enjoyment vs. farming)

I'm totally jumping in on this too early but idk it's interesting to think about.

That and also our whole "There's someone I want you to meet" - "ITS NORMAN" jokes made me think, like you could probably ACTUALLY restructure some of this in a way that would allow Norman's return here instead lol. Could be a fun AU, esp since we have the seeds of a (small-scale) demon annihilation plan anyway.

I also just find it funny to think about Norman grumbling from his future self that Emma agreed to some random guy's plan so easily udkhjsd

Obviously the time is a bit of a mess -- it's only been 3 months? is Adam out bc Norman's escaped already or was Adam just shipped to GP? if he already escaped, our boy is quick - plus, why would he go to GP. the supporters in Lambda probably know it's been compromised, so aside from freeing the children, there isn't a lot of reason to go there and while that may have priority, I feel like 3 months is a bit of a short timeframe for Norman to settle in there well enough -- so it's more wonky than anything BUT IT'S FUN TO THINK ABOUT.

.

btw I find it so funny how Emma has that whole "intent to kill" thing going on now, considering her later moral stance - like it's fair but coming from s2 it's a bit of whiplash haha especially since she's so determined about it right from the start. (though I have no idea if she ever addressed killing demons before this, memory bad)

Though notably she said "she wants to shut down the hunting ground too", not "want to kill them too" - and it's good that she draws a line but IDK IT'S JUST INTERESTING because what bothers her is the toying / no respect for their lives, right? - "this kind of hunt", not hunting in general.

... so like, if you were hunted by a demon in the wild, who didn't toy with you, just killed and ate you, that would be fine then? Idk, it's a very fine line and I get it, but it's interesting to think about. A quick, suffer-less death is of course a valid thing to want if you will die anyway, but you're dead afterwards in both variants.

Of course maybe I'm reading it wrong and it's just her sort of realizing that between mass production farms and GP, they really did have it good, even if they died an early death, and how this is much more hate-worthy than GF's method. Which is true, I suppose, and might expand on the building blocks of her moral development down the line (as in "there's different stages of demon-badness").

.

Also a more funny thought but imagine if Lucas DID have the pen, would... Geezer-senpai just not find the way back? And even if he did would he even get into the bunker? That'd be one tragic ending pff. Tell the person to run away and they can't even go back inside sudhdjd

.

Also i thought about it and isn't it weird that none of the books or materials mentioned what goldy pond actually is? Like youd expect sth that important to be in there.

We know WM wasn't at the bunker in the last 13 years and we know that the books he supplied to GF, the newest one was 2015. What if he was discovered or had to limit his WM activity 30 years ago?

So 30 years ago, he still sent people to goldy pond.

I'm just realizing.... That totally sounds like a setup for minerva to actually be on the demons side or a demon himself sjdhjddj. Like he orchestrates escapees (who are likely to be smart) and then sends them to GP where he and his noble friends can hunt them.

But where i was actually going with this uh, what if GP 30 years ago (potentially longer depending on how long ago he was there last) wasn't actually a hunting a ground? Why would you send kids there without a warning otherwise? What if it WAS a small human community (tho that would likely have been passed around by the inhabitants) or it was at least WM supporter base like the bunker, intended for humans to live there. Not sure about mansion then but YKNOW.

If it was, i wonder if it being discovered was a huge part in WM cover being blown OR if the demons decided to keep it secret bc you know this place is rly convinient haha

I also wonder how wm even finds and builds all these underground things lol. Bc it can't have existed since before the world split i think?

Man has some big construction projects running pfff.

I'm also not sure how that underground thing works-

.

its tori is confused about minor things hour

[Emma takes the axe with right hand, her right hand is still behind her as if she was winding up, but the axe is already thrown?]

like if she had the axe still in hand it'd make sense or if it was in her hand AND spinning, it'd be like "2 frames".

but this?? i am just-

.

im rly late with this but the glove is Lucas' memorial. the pair will only be together again when they reunite :<<

what I want to know is HOW. like the John thing is already questionable but I guess he could have gone back again?? but with this.

he has both gloves when they part he still have one glove on when his arm is gone. but the arm Leuvis has, doesn't have a glove?? So either Leuvis took it off but i wouldn't know why, and just dropped it on the ground for geezer to come pick up ORRRR he took one off for some reason?? maybe he threw it at the demon pff something is very un-continous here and i need answers-

.

the duality of man... not wanting people to know a) your age and b) your name (which you may have forgotten, who knows)

we just assumed geezer's name is censored here but I guess it could be anything haha-

#tpn #tpn manga #tpn manga thoughts #tpn manga theory #tpn theory #tpn spoilers #tpn manga spoilers #ynn spoilers #ynn manga spoilers #tori talks #tori has opinions

[gra-sonas]

Damn that ratings drop was brutal! NGL, after what they did in 2x2 I feel avenged but also I do love some of the cast so I feel bad too. Anyway, in your opinion, what do you think is a bigger factor in affecting ratings in an upcoming episode: the ep synopsis or the previous episode itself? Cuz I'm in the fandom and I don't even go searching for a sysnopsis. I highly doubt a casual viewer would. So thoughts?

Yeah, that drop was rather significant. :/

I think there’s more than one reason.

1/ The super long hiatus. Many casual viewers simply forgot the show even exists (there are still people on Twitter, who only now discover that the show wasn’t actually cancelled and is back for S2. I can’t even imagine how many casual viewers who’re not active on social media have no idea the show’s back).

2/ The total lack of promotion for the show between S1 & 2. The official social media accounts went radio silent after S1 ended, there was zero effort to attract new viewers by telling them the show’s on Netflix, or that there would be a S2.

3/ No new content for almost a year. The only new content we (as in 'the people already invested in the show’) got between S1 and 2 was random pics/vids and some spoilers the cast/Carina shared + the NYCC trailer. A trailer in super wonky, distorted quality, yet it still provided better and more exciting glimpses into S2 than the official S2 trailer did (which was only released about 2 weeks prior to the S2 premiere…) So for almost 11 months, there was basically nothing to get people excited unless they were actively looking for news. 

4/ Lacklustre S2 promo. CW promo’s always kinda bad, but the one for RNM is pretty much non-existent. Leading up to S2, there was nothing but the occasional pre-scheduled promo post (with S1 promo pics and clips and the hint to download the CW app or sth like that). And they didn’t even start to promote S2 until about two weeks before to the premiere. They had to cancel a press day bc of COVID-19, instead they’ve organized the weekly IG takeovers now, which are really cool, but also mostly of interest to those who’re already following the show more closely. Any casual viewers are probably unaware.

Currently it seems like the CW PR team pretty much forgot about the show (we didn’t get any 2x03 promo pics prior to the episode, and they didn’t release a preview clip either). There’s basically no effort made to promote the show, and I’m not even talking about huge billboards or AOL Build talks (though stuff like that wouldn’t hurt), just… IDK, keeping things going and flowing between S1 & 2, and actively making more people catch up on S1 on Netflix could’ve gone a long way, y’know. :/

I think the lack of PR on every level is definitely playing a role in the dropping numbers. It shows, that not only didn’t they manage to attract new viewers, they even lost S1 viewers. Whether that’s entirely due to the lack of promo, or is in part to blame on the writing, is impossible to say.

5/ That being said, S1 didn’t exactly end in a good place, and 11 months is a looooong time to forget about characters you may have cared for (just a normal amount :P) a year ago. I don’t know how happy or unhappy casual viewers have been with the show’s writing, but you don’t have such a drop in ratings just from a lack of promo.

No idea whether this will change anything in regards to the writing of the show next season. Who knows how decisions by TV higher ups are made, where the ‘blame’ is put for stuff like that, and whether Carina would actually be ‘ordered’ to make changes? (I don’t really think that will be the case tbh)

For now, we don’t have to worry, S3′s a go, and once that’s wrapped, I doubt the show’ll get cancelled (broadcast syndication/international sales is where The CW makes most of their money, and the more episodes a show has, the more valuable it becomes for syndication and outside-of-the-US sales).

Another bonus: they’re filming in Santa Fe, which is cheaper than LA, Georgia or Vancouver (where many other shows are produced) and comes with additional tax incentives. The cast isn’t as expensive as the cast of most other CW shows either, neither does the show rely on expensive special effects (like all the Arrowverse shows) - all good reasons for the CW to keep the show in production, especially as a mid-season show.

Dropping viewership numbers still suck tho, and I feel sorry for the cast. :(

They’ve been working so hard for almost 8 months to make the show, the least The CW could do is properly promote it, and also look for more opportunities to get the cast out for interviews (like, why isn’t there a single RNM related interview with Tyler about Alex Manes in S2 - a gay amputee veteran character -  or an interview with Trevino, he was at atVfest, and last year he did an interview or two, but apart from that, there’s nothing, and both Trevino and Tyler are two of the ‘bigger names’ on RNM, with people knowing them from their TVD/PLL days).

And please, for the love of humans and aliens alike, up your laaame social media game, CW pr team. The RNM Costume IG account is doing a much better job at promoting the show than you, and it’s NOT ACTUALLY THEIR JOB.

#nonnie asks #rnm ratings

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Fruits Basket 2019 2nd Season Ep11: “All Mine”

After the emotional intensity of the beach arc, we finally return to good old fashioned comedy hijinks for a refreshing and uplifting episode of- haha lol the Pain Train’s just getting started, folks.

Thoughts under the cut.

As I figured last week, this episode skipped forward a bit to cover chapters 67 and 68 [but with a bit of chapter 66 at the start to lead into it], which makes a lot of sense since they’re rearranging things so that we cover a few more plot points before the next school term starts.

The next episode preview confirms that we’re getting the Hatori/Mayu episode next week, which makes a lot of sense, since the school conference stuff where that gets alluded to happens pretty much right after the school term starts back up. I don’t think I realized that until I went back after last week’s episode and checked the manga again, but it makes sense that they’d have to do it now, rather than later. I’m glad they opted to move it to the very end of the summer vacation part of the story, though, since it wouldn’t have felt natural to have it happen in the middle of the beach arc.

And this way it also means that they barely have to change the context of the Hatori/Mayu stuff at all, since it’ll still take place in the same summer vacation period, just after the beach arc instead of during it. It might still feel like a bit of an abrupt plot detour, but less so than in the manga.

Anyway, this episode was basically split between Tohru talking to Kazuma about the curse, and the whole Kagura/Kyo scene that finally expands upon Kagura’s motivations and backstory. And even though some of the art and animation in this episode felt a bit wonky, the writing was still really good, and this ended up being just as engaging and emotional as pretty much any other episode we’ve gotten in season 2 thus far, even if it’s a bit more low-key and transitional than the beach arc was.

The stuff with Tohru and Kazuma was pretty much entirely exposition and foreshadowing, plot-wise, but it’s a good way to basically summarize everything the beach arc told us, and to make it absolutely clear what Tohru’s motivation is going to be for the entire second half of the series. The nature of the curse is also elaborated on a bit more by Kazuma, which is nice. At this point in the story, even though there’s various plot twists and reveals to be had about Akito’s backstory and the whole origin of the curse, we pretty much know everything we need to know about the curse after this episode. Kazuma explains that, at least as far as he knows, the curse is pretty much just the twisted and restrictive bond between the zodiac members that enforces this cycle of artificial togetherness, and in a lot of way’s that’s pretty much the gist of the whole curse.

Which is also why he told Tohru that in a lot of ways she’s already doing everything she needs to do to try and help everyone, since her presence in their lives is pretty much exactly what they all need to start questioning and stepping away from the curse. But of course it’s not like Tohru’s gonna just sit back and not actually *do* anything about it, lol.

This episode also continues to show us how Rin is really similar to Tohru in spite of how different their personalities are, since she’s also trying to break the curse in her own way, even if the story hasn’t delved into her backstory and motivations for that just yet. I think it’s a good choice to have someone like Rin who ultimately shares Tohru’s goal, but clashes with her because she doesn’t want someone like Tohru to be trying to break the curse, for several reasons. I just think it’s neat that Akito’s not the only person who’s actively against what Tohru’s doing, but for entirely different reasons.

And then there’s all the stuff with Kagura. To be honest I’ve never liked Kagura at all, and even after this part of the story I still don’t, but I at least appreciate that this makes her into more of an actual fleshed-out character and not just a walking cliche who doesn’t really work at all in the modern era.

I think the main reason why her material here kinda falls flat to me is that it feels like the story as a whole tries to have it’s cake and eat it too with her. I don’t think she ever pulls the same tsundere antics again after this point, but it doesn’t retroactively erase the fact that we still got so many unironic examples of that trope earlier in the story, and that it was obviously designed to be appealing to people who like that trope, even if it gets interrogated in this episode. But it’s still nice to see Kagura herself acknowledge why she does it and how unhealthy it is.

It at least also plays a pretty important role in Kyo’s overall role in the story, and it’s a pretty big example of how he’s treated as the cat spirit in practice. Characters like Akito and his father actively hate him for it, but Kagura has this mix of pity and genuine love for him. Which is kinda true for Kazuma as well, but it plays out way differently with them because of how Kagura first met Kyo when they were kids, and Kazuma was an adult who adopted Kyo, so they went down the path of pitying and then genuinely loving Kyo in notably different ways. And the fact that nobody, not even Akito, ever actually cares about Kagura’s feelings for him also go to show how much Kyo is seem as a non-entity by the family as a whole, which means that Kagura’s feelings for him aren’t seen as any sort of a ‘threat’ to the system, like what happened with Hatori and Mayu, or Kisa and Hiro.

It’s also pretty noteworthy that Kyo is so calm and honest with her in this episode, but I think it’s a little inaccurate to sum it up as him developing as a character and getting more mature. To some degree that’s true, but I think his attitude in this episode has much more to do with how he just got done dealing with all the trauma of the beach arc, which left him completely resigned to his fate of being imprisoned, which for better or worse has lead to him not getting worked up over things as much as he used to. The part where he bluntly tells her that he’s never going to fall in love with her in particular just seems like an extension of how he told Akito that he’s never going to fall in love with anyone.

And in it’s own way it’s kinda messed up that they’re only able to have this sort of sincere talk about their feelings because Kyo’s lost all hope for his future, even if Kagura doesn’t really realize that.

Even though I still don’t feel very strongly about this whole part of Kagura’s character, I think it was a good choice to save the OP song for her big moment at the end where she admits that she’s come to genuinely like him after forcing herself to act like she did for so long.

I guess in general I like this part more because of what it says about Kyo as a character than what it says about Kagura, lol.

But anyway that’s about it for this episode. We’re officially getting into the full swing of the second half of the story now, with everyone’s motivations becoming more clear, and certain plot threads wrapping up, or at least getting addressed again. The fact that the next episode is gonna go back to the Hatori/Mayu stuff is kinda gonna put a break on the plot progression for a bit, which kinda sucks, but it’s better to do it this way than to shove it into the middle of the beach arc.

I’ll have to go back over the whole middle third of the manga again to remind myself how it all went, but now that we know what the next episode will cover, I think this gives me a much better idea for how the rest of the season will be paced out, if we assume it’ll be 25 episodes again [which is just about confirmed, since it has the same amount of BD volumes as S1 did]. In general I think they’re gonna end s2 at around the end of volume 16, but if they keep going at a two chapters per episode pace for the rest of the season, I don’t actually think they’d be able to get all the way to the end of that volume.

#murasaki rambles #fruits basket

[38sr]

I wanna know everything

WHERE DO I BEGIN, VULPES????

Okay okay, I’m just gonna list off the things that I’ve already written for this AU and hope I don’t get into spoilers for the Undercut DJ. To make things clear, this AU is like a mix of canon divergence/fix-it since I’ve been taking the time to rewatch VLD and analyze the story as a whole. So let’s start at the beginning~

Voltron 2020: A canon divergence/fix-it AU based on the 2016 VLD series. I only call it Voltron 2020 since the stories I’ve written/drawn for it so far wouldn’t be out in the public until next year haha.

Where does it start?

V2020 (I’m just shorten it to this) keeps S1 and S2 in canon and kicks off in S3. There’s only one small change I would make to S1 but I’ll get into that when I talk about Shiro in this AU.

These haircuts??? Explain please???

Haha, yes I’m a fan of the idea of Keith, Lance and Allura (yeah you heard me) having shorter haircuts. More so Lance because compared to the rest of the cast’s original designs, his hair maybe be simple but lacks a bit of flair. Lance is the one who get’s his undercut first and the story behind how it happens is covered in a fan comic called undercut that’s slated for release this year.

How Keith and Allura get their haircuts are part of the story as well but doesn’t come until maybe S4 or after (I have to figure out the details on that). But for now, I just wanted to see how Keith looked with short hair and it looks pretty good! 

Keith is in BP suit and Lance is in RP suit?

Yup, one of the things that drove me bonkers in VLD was how they didn’t match their lions. This is more of an OCD thing because I prefer matched colors over mix-match. However, once again changing their suits also has a reason behind it in the story. You can sort of call it…truly stepping into their new roles in the Paladin team. For Keith, becoming the leader Shiro always saw in him. For Lance, becoming the right-hand man and gaining confidence in his skills as a pilot (also becoming Keith’s rock haha).

Okay the real question: Does Shiro die in this AU?

Here’s where things get…a bit interesting? I have two versions of this AU where Shiro does die in his battle with Zarkon and the other where he does not die. So a divergent…within a divergent haha. I have to preface this with I don’t hate Shiro by any means and love his character with all my heart, which is why I made a version where he doesn’t die. Shiro as a disabled, LGBT and PoC character has so much potential that killing him off would be a waste for storytelling. Since the AU takes off in S3 where it was implied that he died, that’s where I took the story and started writing how his death affected the team, mainly Keith. The main point I want to get across is that Shiro needs to lose his connection to Black Lion in order for Keith, Lance and Allura to grow as characters.

In the case I choose to have Shiro die….

As per usual, Keith reluctantly becomes the Black Paladin, Lance becoming the Red Paladin and Allura is the Blue Paladin. We see how Keith is struggling with his loss of Shiro and how he feels incompetent being the leader of Voltron. This would then lead to into the undercut comic and spark a more genuine, supportive friendship between Keith and Lance. I would also keep how Shiro’s conscience remains in the Black Lion, which only Keith knows about cause he’s BP now. This would be great thread to connect Keith and Allura who have lost someone dear to them and rely on technology to keep them alive (when in reality they will always live in their hearts). 

I would also keep the Kuron idea but instead of him joining team Voltron, Honerva and Zakron use the Shiro clones and make their own version of Voltron with the Robeasts we see in S7-8. That way, we could keep The Black Paladins fight since that’s a very emotional and groundbreaking moment for Keith having to face someone cares deeply for. 

In the case I choose to have Shiro live….

I wouldn’t have him be BP again since that prevents Keith from growing into a leader, which then prevent Lance growing as a character and then prevents Allura from growing as a character. If anyone has noticed after watching the series, the character development kind of gets wonky when they decided to bring Shiro back as BP. If anything, it really hindered Keith, Lance and Allura’s character development since S3 focused so much on the dynamics in team Voltron shifted (which would have been super interesting to see as time went on). Since this idea is fairly still new I haven’t quite figured out how I would write the story if I went this route. But, I’m not opposed of having Shiro being involved with the Altean colony…again gotta workshop some stuff here but killing off Shiro is such a waste of potential!

ALSO, if Shiro stays alive, then we need to address Adam in S1 E1. It can be simple like when everyone is at Keith’s shack and Adam’s name gets dropped casually like this:

Shiro: How did you get all this information? This is classified stuff from the Garrison…

Keith: I had someone help me.

Shiro: Someone….?

Keith: …it was Adam.

Shiro: Oh…

Not exact but my point is that could have been a great moment to tell the audience Shiro and Keith have a connection with Adam (more so Shiro because we all didn’t know he was gay until much much later in the series). But lemme move on before I get too into Adam cause so much needs to be written out before I spill it all haha.

Next big question: which ships are canon?

Y’all don’t burn me at the stake but….

Allura and Lotor. 

I KNOW I KNOW! BUT WHAT ABOUT KLANCE!?!?!?!?!??!

Y’all know I will ship Klance until the end of time but right now I haven’t gotten to a point in the story where confirming Klance as a romantic relationship feels natural and right yet. If anything, in V2020 I really want to build Keith and Lance’s relationship as friends and teammates which in turn can lead into something more. But the groundwork needs to be done in order for that to happen.

But yeah Allura and Lotor are confirmed in V2020 cause that feels right and Lotor deserves so much more than what we saw in the show. I’ll leave it at that for now.

Is the ending the same?

HA. NOPE. FAR FROM IT!

This is probably biggest change I made in V2020 but when VLD did this it made me worried for the show as a whole:

Zarkon remains as the main villain and final boss for the entire series.

I would have not killed off Zarkon as early as they did in VLD simply because Zarkon was made out to be such a big threat in the beginning. Don’t get me wrong, Honerva and the war factions are a cool idea as opposing forces but they could have happened first and left Zarkon for last. 

Honevra regaining her memories and going on her rampage could have happened first. Lotor could have found out that she was his mother  and had to confront his abuser. Allura would have to face the fact someone of her own kind was doing horrible things and that evil isn’t determined by (alien) race. All of that could have been presented before killing Zarkon and would have pushed Allura and Lotor’s character development. Also, having Honevra written off first would give Zarkon even more incentive to do what he’s doing cause well, that’s his wife and love makes you do crazy things. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The war factions could have happened after Honerva and that’s where we learn more about the Galra empire and society. Where are there are cracks in the system? How are half breeds like Keith and Lotor viewed? How do factions like the Blade come into play and help team Voltron? All of that could have been explored! Honestly, the war factions arc(?) is an opportunity to further develop Keith and Lotor characters and their relationship since they are both half-Galra. 

As for the final battle and ending of it all, Allura doesn’t die and Voltron (the robot) is the one to be sacrificed.

I wrote a whole theory on it after watching S8, so if you wanna read yet another long post you can check it out here haha.

The point of keeping Zarkon as the main (and final) villain in V2020 is to keep the overarching story simple. Think of ATLA, the story as a whole is really simple: 4 nations based on elemental powers are under the tyrannical rule of a dictator and only one person can stop him and save the world. By keeping the objective of the story simple, there’s room for character development and world-building. Instead of a dark, broody space epic (if that’s what you wanna call it), V2020 focuses more on the characters and world-building that are affected by the main opposing force known as Zarkon. A lot of the stories I have in mind are more episodic but I think that works best for a show where the stage is as grand as space haha.

Pidge and Hunk??

As for Pidge, she kind of….gets everything she wants in the show?? There isn’t really anything drastic I would change since the show fixed her issues…

As for Hunk my baby boy sweet cinnamon roll, don’t worry. I’m making sure he’s more than just a scaredy cat who loves food. I really liked how in the show Hunk learned about Galra diplomacy so maybe I can work with that! 

___

Yeah, I think….that’s everything I can tell you about this AU and I’m so sorry, Vulpes, that I made this answer so long! ^^; Thank you showing interest in my AU!

#ask #send me asks #send me anons #voltron #canon divergence au: undercut #v2020 #txt

[ngame989]

S4 So Far: Fucking Why? A take on the use of emotions and romance as a character development/narrative device compared to past seasons

OK so I literally only slept 3 hours last night after watching the eps, and it was a shitty 3 hours, so apologies if anything is jumbled or incoherent. This post is about why Season 4 as a whole (at least with the character relationships overall, not just romance and not just Starco) feels to me like such a gigantic and unnecessary fundamental writing/focus shift compared to past seasons (especially 1 and 2, but also 3).

Curse was... obviously just a slap in the face, a full descent into “will-they-won’t-they” for no purpose other than dragging it out, since it CONFIRMED that Star and Marco have true mutual love for each other and basically directly stated to the audience in the dance that, no, this isn’t because of the curse, it’s genuine, but decided more love polyhedra and suspense and drama were needed. NOTE THAT I FULLY ADMIT AND ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEIR FEELINGS ARE REAL, THEIR DANCE HIGHLY AFFECTED ME, AND IT WAS A VERY STRONG EMOTIONAL MOMENT. I’m not trying to imply that it meant absolutely nothing, not at all, I’m more talking about its purpose in the narrative than the emotions it contained as an isolated scene when I say “it had no purpose other than to drag things out.” Not sure exactly where we go from here, but I know Starco’s still endgame, and I also know that the route there is gonna be at least some level of disappointment to me. No way around that, but I think it’s worth looking at the rest of the season to dig into what just feels different in a bad way, because it’s really not just Curse. I feel like half the fandom is freaking out simply over just the fact that they claimed they didn’t feel anything anymore, and worrying about the suspense and drama over whether Starco would still happen at all, but that reaction is the goal of will-they-won’t-they, it’s why it works and why so few stories bother going beyond it, and I hate that. The point I want to tackle and criticize isn’t “I’m worried Starco won’t happen!” but rather a look at the overall handling of characters and relationships in the show narratively.

Let’s start with a look back on earlier seasons. I should hope that anyone could agree watching the first 2 seasons that Star and Marco’s relationship was very strongly built on a foundation of emotional intimacy, honesty, supporting each other and understanding each other, etc. Even if you’re not a Starco shipper, even if you’re anti-Starco as a couple and see them as entirely platonic, this much at least should hopefully be agreeable to everyone, because it’s like 80% of what the show contained until the middle of S2 actually got some plot going. Once we get into season 3, it becomes a lot more contentious among the fans, but there’s still a lot of this same stuff. Yes, Star and Marco spend less screentime together, but the majority of moments they share feel special, and have a strong emotional core with moments between them. Toffee, Lint Catcher, Sweet Dreams (sort of), Night Life, Deep Dive, Marco Jr., Booth Buddies, Divide/Conquer - every single one of these had a clear focus on why Star and Marco’s relationship, specifically, was important and special to them, and what made them work so well as a pair. Not just “they go on an adventure together to accomplish a goal.” Granted, not EVERY single episode in any season was like this, all three of the past seasons did have episodes that were just the basic adventure, but this was still an overall important part of the pacing of the show even if not omnipresent. And yes, absolutely, other characters had meaningful emotional moments and bonds with each other as well. Bonbon provided payoff on a genuine emotional honesty that Marco had been building up with Jackie in Sleepover and Naysaya, not just romance for romance’s sake but feeling like it had a purpose, it made total sense why Marco and Jackie had feelings for each other and why they did to some extent work together. Demoncism for Tom and Star was another such moment, capitalizing in some part on Star’s heartbreak, yes, but still serving as a turning point with a genuine purpose to both their characters as they tried to take steps forward as people first, and they bonded over that. Similarly, Is Another Mystery built off of Monster Bash for Tomstar and specifically Tom’s issues with caring about others. Things flowed as a whole across the season, even if not in a way that involved Star and Marco constantly on screen together.

Now let’s look at S4 as a whole thus far. As far as Starco is concerned... what moments like this have we had? When has their relationship been clearly special to them as a normal part of their day to day lives and not just in some epic WOW moment? I guess the end of Follies, and the hug in Ransomgram if you squint just a little bit, but even then, the actual emotional core of that episode really didn’t have anything to do with Star and Marco’s relationship with each other specifically. All their other episodes are just very basic “Star and Marco perform an activity for some episodic plot purpose” with no heart or soul put into their dynamic itself. Then we get to Curse, where apparently Marco’s feelings for Star are so strong that he’s constantly beside himself with emotion over them, and Star’s for Marco obvious enough that even dense as fuck Tom knows. In any past season, these things would’ve been firmly built up over the course of meaningful Star and Marco moments across a handful of segments leading up to it, so... why not now? We had a single tangential reference to it on Star’s end in Lake House Fever, and Marco saying how hard it’s been in Kelly’s World immediately beforehand, and that’s it. Not to mention that Marco apparently has budding feelings for Kelly (despite not having had any meaningful emotional moments with her Lava Lake Beach, a full season ago), after only one episode in Season 4. Bonbon had Sleepover and Naysaya for Jarco, Demoncism had Club Snubbed for Tomstar, what did Kelly’s World have? To me, right now, it feels like emotions/romance in teen relationships in the show 180′d overnight from a genuine part of their day to day lives and interactions that ebb and flow naturally and subtly to “le epic shipping drama with blushes and handholding to get people’s feely-weely uwuing to the max and ready to tune in for more,” and this feels like a HUGE departure from the storytelling method of literally everything before Season 4.

EDIT: Let’s not ignore Curse itself either, though. The idea of destiny vs free will, and Star and Marco choosing to be with each other on their own terms entirely is cool on paper. Issue is, LITERALLY NOTHING IN THE SHOW UP TO THIS POINT HAS GIVEN OFF THE IDEA THAT IT’S MAGICALLY FORCED. Many fans postulated it, but the show never brought it up as a problem to be handled later, and put explicit care into all their developments being entirely natural. The “Blood Moon Curse” was a problem with very little buildup in the narrative, created specifically to start an arc that as an isolated thing seems fine, but ends up just fucking with what they’d already developed and delays the outcome more and more.

Maybe, best case scenario, all of this is just kind of wonky pacing for no clear reason, the show is known to fuck that up even at its best, but the overall progression will still be kind of fine. Maybe we fairly quickly enter an arc where they try to live their new lives, free of feelings, and they allow themselves to get closer to each other without reservation because they think the feelings are gone and begin to find genuine joy and happiness in their relationship (as a result of the love which is still there, but the placebo effect that they think it’s gone makes them open themselves up to it after seasons of trying to hide from it). Maybe this results in Kellco not really going anywhere, with like one episode of them trying to make it work and failing because Marco’s heart still isn’t in it, and Tomstar also breaking up because they both finally accept that even the Blood Moon going away didn’t change anything, and we’re still set for a Big Moment somewhere around Cornonation-Beach Day to be Star and Marco fully accepting and recognizing their love, on their own terms, with every bit of denial and every obstacle behind them, giving us at the VERY least a handful of segments before the end to showcase some day-to-day canon Starco, show why it works for them and why it makes them so happy, and to show Tom (and Kelly too, maybe?) being OK with the situation and finding fulfillment in it themselves. Then the series finale could be the final push for Starco, from “our feelings are real and we want to pursue them without any doubts” to “I want to spend the rest of my life with you”. I’d still overall call this a lot of unnecessary drama and dragging, and still highly question everything about these first 8 episodes that I did, but I can’t deny there IS a symbolic/narrative benefit for Curse here. It could serve as an important milestone where Star and Marco finally put the heartbreak and hurt their feelings cause behind them once and for all, which is sort of what a lot of people thought it would be anyway, and if things still move forward quickly as part of an arc then it would still perhaps accomplish something meaningful and not just dragging for drama.

Or maybe the rest of the season will largely follow the pattern of what we’ve had thus far, with everything through Cornonation being almost devoid of anything special in relationships, just showing characters interacting normally without any real developments, Star and Marco spending time together and Tomstar and Kellco being almost entirely background, with maybe one segment apiece just for fun. Then Beach Day could be a Big Ship™ episode that compresses all the lack of emotion into one giant over-the-top romantic episode where they finally start realizing “huh after the last 8 episodes of our normal friendship, guess we do actually still maybe feel something special after all” and then the breakup(s) happen afterwards as a result of “welp guess it won’t work, it’s been fun” with the series finale being when Star and Marco finally get to say “YES AFTER ALL THIS I NOW REALIZE I LOVE YOU” and kissing once and that’s the end of the show. Which still would be satisfying if for NO other reason than the first 3 seasons lingering in my mind, I still will almost certainly love Starco as a whole no matter what. But holy mother of fuck this would be the dumbest shit ever, a complete reversal on how they’ve always handled everything, for seemingly no other purpose than because they wrote themselves into a corner where they wanted to force Starco to only be series finale, but they also made it so strong in the first 3 seasons that its natural progression would make it canon before then so they had to fuck with it, and would make me almost regret being anything more than a casual appreciator of the show.

So all in all I’m still, for the time being, at least willing to see where it goes I guess, because Star and Marco are still firmly embedded in my heart even if the show’s handling of them in this final stretch turns out to disappoint me in almost every way imaginable. Unless things TRULY go to shit, I have some plans for some fanworks post-canon that will, if nothing else, help me and maybe some of you make peace with the potential the show will likely waste in rising above romcom drama to portray Starco actually blossoming into a fully happy and healthy canon romantic relationship to rule them all. But I will almost definitely not be staying up into the morning watching and freaking out about episodes, if the show is going to appeal to the lowest common denominator of casual romance drama, I suppose I need to become a casual viewer to compensate.

#starco #svtfoe #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe spoilers #tomstar #kellco #svtfoe season 4

[sol1056]

the bar was already so damn low it was practically underground

Well, I guess I’ll start with this quick correction, with thanks to @jeannettegray, who pointed out I mixed up days (for S1-S6) and weeks (S7) which would explain why it felt wonky when I was looking at it. Here’s the corrected chart of time in-the-tail versus not-in-tail: 

I included S8 in this version, but without a season coming after it, the only thing to track is the tail itself... and unless something truly wild happens between now and tomorrow, we’re already out of the tail. S4 and S5 had tails lasting 14 days each. I guess S8 isn’t the worst, since its tail looks likely to be 17 days. Yay, three more days of elevated viewership than the two worst seasons. 

Unfamiliar with the expression ‘long tail’? Here’s a reference image showing the rise and fall of a season’s viewership stats. More info in this S7 post, or you can just check my data-cronch tag. 

Or for a more pointed visual, here’s the past six months: S6, SDCC, S7, and S8... the last of which shoots up and comes right back down. Like a rock. 

For S7, I included IMDB rankings per season, and the range was wide enough I had to take good/average/bad and split it into four: great, good, okay, poor -- and S7 had more episodes in ‘poor’ than any other. That’s what I mean when I say the bar was so low the damn thing was underground... and yet amazingly, S8 utterly failed to hop over it.  

In fact, S8 did worse. Much worse.

viewer feedback via IMDB

Here’s all eight seasons, with their respective episodes averaged into each season’s value. It’s... well. Look for yourself.

For comparison, I also did a breakout, where the full seasons got split into 6 and 7, so we're comparing apples to apples with S3-S6 split seasons. The  pattern is pretty consistent, between first-half and second-half, in that the season-half (or half-season) with the ‘finale’ is usually the one with the higher score. People like big finale set pieces, and those tend to get highest ratings. 

Unless, of course, you’re season 8. Then people hate you. 

S1, S2, S5/S6 (as a two-part season), even S7, all have higher ratings for the finale-containing half. And then there’s S8. I usually try to avoid a word as strong as hate, but... there’s really no other word that fits when the difference is that stark. People really, truly hated S8, in case the Rotten Tomatoes score wasn’t enough to tell you that. 

Given the scores for S8, I had to create a new, even lower level to see how the seasons broke out in terms of ratings per episode. Now we have great (green), good (blue), okay (yellow), poor (red), and... terrible (maroon). 

Yeah. So. There you go. Remember when I said last season that The Voltron Show had lost its title as worst episode ever, unseated by the Feud? 

Well, the Feud has been unseated... by ten episodes in S8. Take your pick, there’s plenty to choose from. As of the time of this posting, the current three worst episodes are The Zenith (5.2), Uncharted Regions (5.3) and Clear Day (5.5). I’d list the ten worst but then I’d just be listing all but three episodes from S8, anyway. 

However, it’s interesting to see the pattern form when you put the split-seasons back together. You can see how in some ways, there’s a certain level of audience approval gradually building, I guess as people got used to the story’s vagaries, err, style.

The number of ‘great’ episodes (8.6 or higher) slowly climbs; the number of ‘okay’ episodes gradually declines. S7 breaks that pattern, with only one ‘good’ episode, a few ‘okay’ and the rest at poor. S8, well. Yeah. 

Okay, moving along, to the IMDB traffic. This is another viewership-style stat, since a site’s page tends to get hit the most when people want to know about the show they’re watching. 

The color-dot indicates the ranking for the week of release. S6′s biggest interest was the week it released, which tells me people were going direct to IMDB on the day of release or the next day. When that happens, it seems to correlate with viewers coming to rate every episode, often with a strongly positive slant. They want to get right in there and make their happiness known. 

S7, the leap upwards came a week later, and the utter wildness of the rating (plus the delay) seems to be related more to rubbernecking and controversy, rather than viewers reporting in. S8 not only debuted lower than the previous two seasons, it also had a delayed reaction (indicating more controversy)... and it dropped right back down, in one of the biggest post-peak drops I’ve seen yet.

viewer feedback via twitter

About six hours after S8 appeared on Netflix, I caught this sentiment analysis of the twitter stream for ‘voltron’ as a keyword. This is from midnight California time (point of release) to about 6am California time.

This is the tracker where I can’t review sentiment, and judging from the other tracker I use, the negative is higher... but more negative than positive is never good, no matter the totals. 

Twelve hours after release, I checked the other tracker. Traffic overall was pretty low compared to previous seasons (and nowhere near what S7 had prompted, not even in the same county). Sentiment was running about 3:1 negative --- that is, for every for-VLD tweet, there were three against. 

(If it makes anyone feel better, #Allura was the center of the maelstrom, with Shiro a not-quite-close second. No, despite the impression on tumblr, people weren’t sitting back and accepting Allura’s fate.) 

But seriously, the response was otherwise pretty subdued. This is a general traffic pattern + predictive, for #voltron as of two days after release:

Which is pretty much... nothing at all. If I didn’t know better, I’d think no season had been released at all. It shouldn’t look that flat when a season drops, and it sure as hell shouldn’t be predicted to fall within the week. 

And back to the sentiment analysis, showing the trends over the first week and a half after release. It’s continued to fall in a semi-regular pattern, so this is a fair-enough idea of what it looks like. (It hasn’t changed much; it just keeps gradually dropping.) 

24 hours after release, negative-to-positive was nearly 1:1; since then, it’s stayed pretty consistent with two positive tweets for every one negative. Which, okay, you might say, two-thirds of people expressing an opinion seem to be somewhat okay with things, right? 

Except I think there might only be like a few hundred of them. I mean, the peak up there, of total mentions? Maybe 1200, total. Sure, it’s great that 510 people had something nice to say while 498 were unhappy, but... that’s practically three people in an empty auditorium, if you go by twitter’s usual traffic levels. 

And no one’s sticking around, either. Once again there was a post-release bump thanks to the simmering controversy... and then everyone hung up the phone, left the building, went on vacation, but they sure checked out. 

That leap upwards? That’s not the week of release. That’s the week after. The week of release (second bar from the right) is flat for just a bit, before spiking upwards. And just like the wiki-extrapolated viewership stats, it falls promptly afterwards. Like a rock. 

(I so want to crack a joke about rocks fall, everyone dies, but... #TooSoon?) 

There’s one last chart to explore, but this one’s a bit of a doozy to explain. Once you see what it’s saying, though, hopefully you’ll find it as interesting (and illuminating) as I do. I’ll leave it here for everyone to ponder, and get into it in the final S8 installment. 

Coming in the next few days.

#vld #voltron #doing the data cronch #sol explains things

[missjackil]

SPN Over The Seasons.

Since the pilot, Ive noticed a pattern emerge. The pilot was different from every season to follow. Very heavy on the folklore monster hunts, brothers bickering, bromancing, meeting other recurring characters, first time disquising as feds and so forth, but this was all the story and character development stage. Any first season of any show, follows a similar pattern and even if you think it should stay that way, it never really does. After S1, Supernatural began a pattern of 2s.  S2 and 3 were almost identical in how the stories unfolded, how the brothers interracted and what kind of monsters they hunted. They introduced a home base by exchanging a local library for Bobby’s house. They dont have to spend all their time between cases in the Impala or in crappy motel rooms, and they have a place to study at their convenience. S2 also shows us that the show has a very unserious, goofy side. Tale Tales and Mystery Spot (though Mystery Spot was very sad after the first half) S2 introduced the fact that the boys are not immune to having life ruining events happen to them. Dad sells his soul for Dean, Sam gets possessed by Meg, Sam has to kill his love interest, Dean sells his soul for his brother’s life, we learn that death doesnt mean forever and the Winchesters CAN die but asks the question of “is anyone REALLY ever the same after they come back from the dead?” And now that we have established that Hell exists, and the will of God exists, is Dean actually going to Hell?  (intro now to the next set of 2)

Season 4 and 5 were now completely different than seasons before it. Shit starts to get real. First we learn, yes, Hell is a real place and the Winchesters arent immune to that either. We learn time travel is possible, Angels are real and are dicks, God is real, Lucifer is real, and there is a REAL reason why Sam and Dean do what they do. They are part of The Big Picture, the great war between Good and Evil, Destined from the beginning ti fight this battle, between the Archangels and bring on the Appocolypse. We learn Sam, though having strong morals, can be lead to do the unthinable, drink demon blood to supposedly to get revenge on Lilith for sending Dean to Hell, but mostly to show he loses control when Dean is gone that leads to some horrible decisions. Which paralleled Dean losing it when Sam died. We get a recurring Angel and a recurring Demon and we re reminded in the end that not only are the Winchesters willing to do anything to save each other, theyre willing to do anything to save the world, and Sam voluntarily throws himself into Hell to save the world he thinks he ruined. At the end of S5, it leads into S6 with Dean trying to have a life with a woman and kid, and Sam being “different” intro to the next set of 2s. Seasons 6 and 7 are again, different than other seasons. Sam has no soul for half the season, so we learn that sometimes Winchester afflictions might be bad, and also last a while. Dean has a family at home that he willingly leaves to hunt, confirming what Dean always believed, that he cant have a life outside of hunting. We have Bobby who has done more than enough to prove he is family to the boys, and that family really doesnt end with blood, and the Campbells who prove it doesnt start there either.  S6 and 7 also had more humor than previous seasons yet adding some real darkness in Sam’s hallucinations and subequent insanity. We also learn that monsters, though deadly can sometimes be kinda comical (leviathans) and big monsters are (can appear) human... Dragons, Eve, Pheonix Alpha Vamps and so on.  We  lose Bobby in S7 and the boys are back to no home base and staying in random cabins bobby and ruffus had set aside, and very limited lore books to go by. But we also learn that the Word of God is a thing, and there are more Pophets than Chuck .. this leads into Seasons 8 and 9. Seasons 8 and 9 are much different than the seasons before (see the pattern now?) We first learn that though the brothers have this deep abiding twisted codependent love for each other, they are not immune to lying, betraying, and dismissing the others feelings. They fight, they seperate, they lose trust.  Both have come to the point of being martycidal (aka suicidal Winchester style) because they believe their brother doesnt need, love, nor trust him anymore. Sam seems to talk Dean off this ledge in Trial and Error, by affirming in him that hes a genious, the best hunter ever, and he wants to take him to the light at the end of this tunnle (I still llove you man!) Sams is more emotional because he’s made so weak and sick through the trials and just lost people he cared about “because of him” but Dean talks him off that ledge by assuring him, in the most heart wrenching way possible, that he (Sam) is the absolute foremost important thing to him in the world and always will be. We also aquire the Bunker, now the boys have a nice comfy home base they can call home and sleep in warm beds when not on hunts. Season 9 shows Dean making some poor (though) necessary decisions when hes seperated from Sam. First one is when Sam is dying and he tricks Sam into letting an angel  possess him, and when that goes sideways and they seperate again, Dean accepts the MoC without much question, which proves to be a bad idea. What we learn from these 2 seasons, is that the Winchesters should never be seperated... period, What leads into then next 2, is the MoC AND that secondary characters get their own storylines (bleh) S10 and 11 are different from other seasons. The boys learn that they can “trust” natural enemies (witches and demons) if it suits their needs. Sam learns that sometimes its ok, and necessary to discount a persons wishes unless you are ok with them dying or becoming who they are not, or the safety of the world is in the ballance. Yes folks... respect another persons choices, but only if you are prepared to give up on them if it will destroy them or others..The bros dont seperate anymore though they fight pretty much all through S10 in one way or another. And Sam is willing to go against Deans wishes to leave the MoC alone because something bad will happen, and Sam goes behind his back anyway because he needs his brother and wont live without him (parallel S9 and Gadreel)  On the other side, Crowley, Cas, and Rowena all get their own storylines, and it sucks...IMO anyway, if the focus isnt on Sam and Dean it shouldnt be in the show (sorry I had to) but this carries into S12 and I hope it finishes there. S11 has the guys getting along very well all season, enough fighting for crying out loud. But we arent lead into the next 2 seasons, 12 and 13 till the end. The BMoL pop up and Mom is back.

So, needless to say now, that we can say S12 is different, or wonky from the other seasons, we cant deny a patern that has been used since the beginning. Things in this season will lead into S13, which hopefully means there wont be any end in site till at least 15. If the pattern continues.

#supernatural by seasons #my meta