#s10 speculation

[raayllum]

if (and when??) tdp gets renewed what do you think those seasons would be called?

I would expect them to be the names of Deep Magic concepts tbh. A tome in Aaravos' (house?) prison is "The Four Ancient Gifts" which could relate, even though we have 3 seasons in arc 3 and not 4. My best guess off the top of my head would be Truth, Power, Love, and/or Destiny

[notscarsafe]

OKAY SO what with the TWO new Hermits implied by the updated banner I will say that, though the Skizz truthers have me convinced, I now have room to do my own crazy red string monologue and throw my hat in for my choice

1) Mythical J. Sausage (the J is silent) is a multitalented S-tier builder that absolutely deserves to be shoulder to shoulder with the Hermits. The man does buildings, interiors, terraforming, custom trees, and he does them SO WELL.

2) The production values!!! Beautiful replay mod sequences with shifting camera perspectives, shaders, music that sets the tone for each segment that's different from series to series. He already has more than a million followers on YouTube and for good reason!!

3) He has been SO consistent lately. He started a hardcore world about three months ago (about the time you might expect the Hermits to finalize their s10 choices maybe...???) and already has 15 episodes and hasn't gotten involved in any other big content. (He did just start playing a little of the BCG server but from what I understand that's super casual /copium copium copium).

4) That hardcore world is conveniently about to reach a good "pause" point. He started his world on a cherry blossom biome island that he's filled with a medieval village and starter farms, he's said it's almost full and what's left is the castle. I'm guessing the new season will start the first week of February, so if Sausage puts out a video this week building out that Castle and finishing that island it will be MIGHTY CONVENIENT TIMING.

5) This man can GRIND. His Hardcore world hasn't even been going half a year and he's built... So much??? Magnificent! And when he was on the Hermitcraft server he did the Razorcrest for scar AND the player head baby yoda/stormtrooper merch AND the noteblock themesong AND still built in the xmas village and other "diamond of peace" and so many other shenanigans. Did the man even sleep? He can grind with the best of them.

6) He can do redstone, too! Maybe not unique designs, I honestly don't know, but he builds farms for build materials no problem.

7) The DRAMA this man loves his improv and his backstory and trauma lore! For every series he does! Can you imagine if he gets to interact with Ren for an extended period of time, what that would do to them, to us?? Give Martyn a run for his money!!

8) Which brings me to my next point, which is that Sausage is already One of The Gang, because he's been in series with so many of the Hermits already! Empires and the crossover, obviously, but also Pirates with Cleo and Origins with Scar, and he's even done MCC! Joel is the only other player with the same depth of different series but there are other people truthing him already.

9) The EPIC BROMANCE with Pearl. My god the devotion of this man to his sunflower goddess bestie. I would try to do ot justice but y'all have seen floweroflaurelins work, you already know.

10) He's already a PG streamer but with HILARIOUSLY PG-13 tendencies. Imagine him and Cleo cracking each other up at an HHH stream, *grips your shoulders* IMAGINE IT.

11) Sausage comes with his own mascot in the form of interdimensional dog extraordinaire Bubbles, but he's also just an animal lover on general. Mans drinks his "I love Jellie" juice and had her in his world even before the sad news of her loss.

12) Diversity win! No one should be hired just for their gender, race, sexuality etc etc unless it's truly necessary to the job, but we were all happy when more women got added to the server in s8 and I know a lot of people would be happy to see some ethnic diversity added, too.

... That bulletin board had a lot more pins in it than I thought it did but anyway MYTHICALSAUSAGE TRUTHERS/ALL OTHER TRUTHERS RISE UP SPEAK YOUR TRUTH! we'll only get to wildly speculate for a few weeks so we might as well make it everyone else's problem ENJOY IT TO THE FULLEST!!

[ironworked]

Given the reasons behind 911's move from FOX to ABC (x, x), its ratings and viewers for this season so far, the currently developing spin-off, its year to year evolution, 911 vs its timeslot rivals and other ABC shows (shown below), and this ranking of this year's broadcast shows so far

911 year-to-year evolution:

vs ABC shows (this season):

vs timeslot rivals:

...

[eluminium]

Lately I've been seeing a lot of people doing new hermit speculations dismissing Skizz as an option for HC10, pointing to his statements about just not having a lot of time lately on the Imp and Skizz podcast. AND TO THAT CLAIM I SAY

Because Skizz is TOTALLY still an option for one of the two new hermits for Hermitcraft season 10!

Now I don't expect everyone to be as normal (read: insane) about Skizzleman as I am, HOWEVER! There are two clear contradictions in known facts that disprove this claim and I have the obscure-ish knowledge to prove it!

Proof number 1!: The Imp and Skizz podcast is recorded in sessions, not individually. This is done for efficiency considering both Impulse and Skizz do not have the time to meet up and record individual singular podcasts anymore. Instead, they record 2-3 podcasts in a row so that they have the next weeks covered. BUT! This means that there is a good 2-3 weeks of delay between a podcasts recording and its posting at a minimum! Which in turn means that both men have ample time to change situations or opinions, and any opinion shared on the podcast is not 1-1 relevant to the here and now! This means that yes, while Skizz says he has no time, this is based on what could be outdated data! ...now this isn't my strongest argument, but really, it's just setdressing for my main argument. WHICH IS PROOF NUMBER 2!: Skizz is going on a sabbatical from his work in the super near future to focus on content creation. Yes, you read that right! In a recent phasmo stream, Skizz made this very important claim that by itself puts him back on the radar for potential new hermits. Now I don't know how long Skizz's sabbatical would be, but traditionally they can last from 3 months up to a year. Even on the low estimate, that's 3 entire months. 3 months focused on content creation without the distraction of his irl work. Time he could use to, oh I don't know, establish himself as a new hermit perhaps? SO IN CONCLUSION. SKIZZLEMAN FOR HERMITCRAFT SEASON 10 IS STILL REAL GUYS. AND GOD DAMN DO I PRAY THAT HIS MAGIFICANT ASS GETS ON THAT SERVER. GO LOVE BOY GO

[sevensoulmates]

”deeper depths of his queer love” the realization that’s he’s been in love with his best friend for YEARS is going to hit him so hard I can only imagine how buck would react. Is he gonna laugh is he gonna cry is he gonna be scared is he gonna be happy is it all of the above?

Yeah, Oliver sees the vision. He seems to realize that Buck's relationship with Tommy is leading to something bigger, that there's more under the surface that needs to be discovered than just what he's found in these last two episodes, and I'm so excited to see it all come to fruition.

I personally think when Buck does finally realize he's gonna shut that shit DOWN. I don't think he's going to say shit for fear of losing Eddie and Chris. What I think could happen is Buck realizes in the season finale, it shakes him to his core, he keeps it to himself, the hiatus happens, we come back in season 8 and find out that Buck still hasn't said a word to Eddie but now people are starting to notice that Buck's acting a bit different around Eddie. Not enough for Eddie to notice (man is nothing if not oblivious to men who are in love with him), but enough that it draws the attention of the rest of the firefam. But there are subtle signs, such as a lot of staring, both jumping to spend extra time with Eddie but also holding himself back for fear of being too obvious.

Meanwhile, Eddie may or may not still be with Marisol. If he's still with Marisol, I want to see this being the continuation of his queer realization. I'd be okay with more issues popping up with Marisol and this time Eddie's got no excuses. Or regardless of if she's there or not, Eddie's back in therapy and trying to work through things. OR it could be fun to have Eddie AND Marisol in couples counseling, having the two of them trying to work their shit out, and have the culmination of that be Eddie realizing he's queer.

I just think if they don't have Eddie's queer realization arc in season 7, then a significant portion of it should be dealt with in season 8a. My timeline that I would love would be a mutual bucktommy break up in 7x10 + agreement to remain friends. Buck is pining for Eddie the whole of 8a, and Eddie figures out he's queer by the mid-season finale. A marisol breakup could be on or off screen at that point. As long as he FIGURES. IT. OUT. Then 8b could focus on Eddie coming to terms with his own queerness, now with Buck's conflict being "do I tell Eddie or do I not tell him?" Maybe even have BUCK shifting into TOMMY'S position, of sort of being a "guide" for Eddie, but worrying that he could be taking advantage of him. Meanwhile, Eddie's learning the freedom that comes along with finally being true to himself in 8b, and maybe he's seeing that everything he's ever wanted aligns exactly with what Buck gives him and their family. We could maybe even have Eddie bringing Shannon back, and worrying that realizing he's queer won't change a thing and maybe the issue really is him. Being scared that if he accepts the love Buck clearly wants to give him that he might ruin the best love he's ever had.

NOW. Depending on if the show wants to extend buddie out or they want to get them together, I could see the season 8 ending episodes going one of two ways: 1.) Buck confesses, Eddie accepts, they start their relationship, including first kiss and first date in s8 ending episodes. S9 sees them in a relationship for real OR 2.) Buck confesses to Eddie, Eddie rejects him not because he doesn't reciprocate but because he's afraid of destroying their relationship like he destroyed all the rest of his other relationships. Season 9 then starts with angst where they BOTH want each other badly but they can't take that final step. Season 9a ends with Eddie realizing that he can't waste time anymore, and their relationship starts for real in s9b.

Anyway, this got away from me. I think both of them are going to be more scared of their feelings than accepting right away. BUT I do have faith they'll find their way to each other eventually.

[nieisan]

Im seeing a lot of speculation about the new hermits but i'm 100% sure that Joel WILL be one. First, he hasn't said anything. In other season starts, he always said something.

Im really think at least one of them him being honest.

[yumenosakiacademy]

HC WAS TRENDING N I THOUGHT IT WAS BC THE NEW WL EP (cuz, u kno, many hermits on tht server) BUT WHA HUH ??

EDIT: NO1 KNOWS ?! (like, legitimately i mean. not "does no1 kno?" its "No1 Knows Why") wild. a mystery. oh well.

[queermania]

I have a real question that I promise I'm not trying to start shit. Just really wanna know your thoughts. Do you think Jensen wants them to make destiel canon or Dean queer?

ummmm.... maybe? my honest answer is that i don't know. i have a lot of different thoughts that add up to a certain conclusion but it ultimately means nothing because i don't know him and i have no idea what he's thinking about anything.

my general speculation (based on nothing but vibes and an unnecessarily large wealth of spn knowledge) is that if kripke had come to him some time during the first three seasons and said, "hey we wanna make dean [insert flavor of queer here]" jensen would've been like "cool, boss, just tell me what you need me to do."

(after s3, i think the only flavor of queer that was even remotely an option was bisexual so that's what i'm using from here on out. however, i do still believe in my heart that dean is gay, for the record <3)

i think if any of the show runners or writers tried to make dean explicitly bisexual (with or without the inclusion of destiel) during s4 through about s10, jensen would've done it because he's a professional, but i also think he would've pushed back on it at least a little, for a variety of reasons.

i think starting around s11 all the way to the finale, he would've been fully on board with explicitly canon destiel, if the writers made that call.

and then that brings us to now and what happens going forward, because that's the real question. i do still believe that if it's out of his control, he will do whatever the people in charge want him to do. but i don't think that particular decision is out of his control anymore. so?

so what i know is that in the past he's said that dean is straight and that destiel isn't a thing, canonically. and he's never said the opposite (outside of the whole "it's a story and it can be whatever you want it to be" type rhetoric).

however. i also know that he was fully on board with the confession and that he was trying to get the rights to supernatural before it was even over because he already knew he wasn't satisfied with the way it was going to end. that tells me that he's always fully planned on the confession being resolved in some way. there are, broadly speaking, only two ways to resolve it:

1. dean doesn't reciprocate.

2. dean does reciprocate.

the thing i'm stuck on is: what does the show even look like going forward if dean doesn't reciprocate? i can't imagine jensen thinks that would go over well. i am generally of the opinion that our part of the fandom vastly overestimates how much of the audience we actually make up, but i just don't believe that after all of this *gestures broadly at the last however many years* he could possibly think that's satisfying. because what happens? dean says "thanks but no thanks" and then... they just pretend like it never happened? dean gets a female love interest? cas stays in heaven as an angel with jack and dean goes back to earth and has a human life without the family he chose over his father? what is the point of it all?

like, i just don't see a way to go forward without dean reciprocating that doesn't feel empty and unsatisfying and depressing for everybody (apart from another relatively small faction of the audience who are going to be unhappy with literally anything that isn't just sam and dean and nobody else anyway).

not to mention, there's no way jensen's not aware of the cultural impact of destiel and the confession at this point.

also, jensen suffers from terminal dean-girlism. he wants that germophobe to be happy. all roads lead to a certain conclusion. but again, i don't actually know.

(also just to be clear i believe dean already is subtextually queer and destiel is reciprocated and nothing you say will change that for me because i watched the show. i have the receipts.)

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

-- > should've at least listened til ep 67? tho brief mention of spoilers for s10 also

If you asked any O.V.E.R. employee what they thought about Hunter Jeremiah Hartley, the most common answer would probably be friendly. Welcoming. Warm. Simply a very nice dude.

Jam would tell you about the time they lost their childhood dog and Hunter Jeremiah Hartley comforted them, even though they barely knew each other. Ryan would tell you about how Hunter was the only one to not keep speculating about his relationship with Chris behind their back, and said Chris would let out a tired sigh and nod in angreement.

(Marissa would go into a tirade about how she deserved to get the Tier 2 spot instead of him. Maybe you should not ask Marissa.)

So when Hunter Jeremiah Hartley first met Mike Walters, he was friendly, welcoming, warm and simply a very nice dude - like he always is. Mike was neither of those things, since he still believed he could somehow "win" woe.begone. Poor thing wasn't even aware of the Flinchites or the Security System or, well, anything. It is almost comical in hindsight, almost as much as it is tragic.

Like most security guards in a top secret facility, Mike Walters is not exactly...social. If you asked any O.V.E.R. employee what they thought about Mikey Walters, the most common answer would probably be prickly. Or maybe that new dude that keeps reappearing with increasingly worrisome injuries. Or that guy that always looks like he is about to have a mental breakdown and hasn't slept in a week. Or, most probable, that one unlucky dude who got mauled by a bear and miraculously survived. Gay employees would probably also follow that last remark up with a joke in rather bad taste.

And yet, they still hit it off.

Hunter Jeremiah Hartley became Mike Walters's best friend, and Mike Walters became Hunter Jeremiah Hartley's.

(When Mike is around Hunter Jeremiah Hartley, he almost feels comfortable, something he didn't think he would ever feel again ever since he started that wretched game.)

Hunter was the first person Mike called on his cabin phone. (Or well, he was actually the second. But his intention HAD been to call Hunter, so he doesn't count the misdial.) Hunter was the gateway to Mike's social life in O.V.E.R. Without Hunter, Mike and Chris and Ryan mostly stewed in awkward silence or painful smalltalk.

Hunter is the type of guy you just feel like you can trust. He and Mike talk about movies and the patch of grass that looked kind of suspicious on their patrol route yesterday or increasingly ridiculous theories about what O.V.E.R. is really hiding.

(Both will become fully aware of what that really is, one day, but it is still fun to "guess". In the future, when they will be openly walking around in Tier 2 or even 3, they will sometimes think about those stupid conversations again and have to remind themselves that they are enemies. Traitors. Evil.)

Hunter will tell Mike about the entire life story he invented for the last spider he set free instead of killing and they will both ignore each other's very suspicious behavior. True friendship.

It is also not uncommon for Mike and Hunter to visit each other's cabins.

It is a night like any other when Mike Walters knocks on Hunter's door in the middle of the night. Hunter is wearing gray sweatpants and an Old Brush Valley 24h Diner shirt. It is a bit odd that Mike should appear without any warning or plans, but it is not uncommon either. Hunter opens the door. He and Mike Walters are best friends, after all.

The man that enters the cabin is not the Mike Walters that Hunter knows and loves.

In another timeline Mike will sneak into Tier 2. In another timeline, he will accidentally transport Edgar into the middle of the Pacific Ocean and call Hunter in a state of panic. And Hunter will want to help, of course he will, he is Hunter after all. Hunter and Mike may not be best friends anymore - a distance growing between them that neither can bridge nor stop - but they still care deeply for each other. In this other timeline, Hunter will live, and Hunter will kill everyone.

But this is not that timeline. And so Hunter Jeremiah Hartley is killed by a stranger wearing his best friend's face, in the knowledge that he would will have had going to murder Marissa and Charlie and Edgar and Chris and Ryan. (But not Mike, not his best friend.) (His acquaintance? His former friend? His... enemy?)

In yet another timeline Hunter dies in a white room with no doors and no windows. Alone.

It is hard to believe, but Hunter and Mike used to be best friends.

[raayllum]

How do you think Arc 3 Rayla will learn her lesson in sacrifice?

That's a good question! I have more speculative thoughts on arc 3 here and here which isn't Super relevant but help highlight a specific thing, which is: the trio all make the Wrong Choices in 7x09, and they can't make those choices again in arc 3's finale (s10).

Like, arc 1 ended with Rayla being willing to sacrifice herself, and being subsequently saved by Callum. Arc 2 ended with Rayla being willing to sacrifice Callum, with it being avoided because of the archdragons. In some ways, all the trio are making the Arc 1 Viren choices in S7, and that can't be where their story ends.

I actually wrote a bigger meta post-S6 about where I thought Rayllum's arcs may go, and overestimated by cramming more into S7 than they reasonably had time for. However, I stand by like, 90% of that meta specifically:

So long as she’s Rayla — brave, selfless, loving — he can be Callum, and so long as he’s Callum — resourceful, persistent, loving — she can be Rayla. Not a dark mage forcing her to be an assassin, but two people who bring out the best in one another. And in doing so, in choosing to save rather than sacrifice each other, they get to likewise save, love, and preserve themselves.

So Callum throwing away being 'Callum' in 7x09, First, and Rayla following suit with him (as she always does) by doing the same is like, spectacularly on brand.

The other parts of the meta I think have a good shot moving forward is Callum having an arc of prioritizing love > mystery/knowledge (again, more on the meta) and Rayla finally, finitely, choosing love over duty.

She tends to go back and forth on it, and it's not as simple as "in order to be a protector she cannot be an assassin" (circa 3x09) but there is a Reason that Rayla has to literally abandon being an assassin™ in order to bring Zym home in arc 1.

When Runaan is brought back in S6/S7, we get a good look at how Rayla still views being an assassin:

I know I've talked about this before in a past meta but forget where, but a core part of being an assassin is dehumanizing others (your target, or targets by proxy) as well as yourself. You, like your targets, are not a person; you are a weapon, a tool, and you are "already dead". Your wants, needs, life, family, etc. doesn't matter. This is pushed even further by the three times we see Rayla take up the assassin mantle explicitly across the series:

In 3x09, wherein she is put into a situation where she cannot kill Viren without literally also killing herself, and is saved/spared only because of Callum.

In 4x05, wherein she abandons the drake vs 2x07 "This is where I'm meant to be," showing that she's continuing to siphon off Core pieces of herself ("Rayla's brave, she saves people [...] That's what makes her a hero. That's what makes her Rayla").

In 7x09, where she's prepared to murder Callum ("I almost risked losing the best thing I ever had" / "My heart for Xadia"), condemning herself to a life without her partner (which neither sets of her parents nor herself were willing to enforce for Lain/Tiadrin or Runaan/Ethari, as she fights to keep them together throughout all of arc 2). This, as Ezran states, would've meant "sacrificing everything we are"; if she'd killed Callum, she would've killed herself (symbolically), too, and she was willing to do it.

Moreover, sacrificing your loved ones is seen as a Big Bad Viren thing to do ("We must be ready to sacrifice, even the things we love" / everything with Lissa, and later Soren; even Runaan with Rayla in 1x03). This is further entangled by, to Rayla, a person just IS a dark mage, but being an assassin is a Separate Job that isn't who they are. And this isn't necessarily truly challenged until AFTER she's picking up her assassin father's bow (the Symbolism) and Runaan has realized maybe he was always wrong, each time, to ben an assassin, because each time he thought the violence was Necessary (Harrow, Callum), he was ultimately wrong (Harrow was a good man who wanted to change; the Archdragons could defeat Aaravos with others' help).

This is especially important because for Runaan, there is no separation of "Runaan as himself" and "Runaan the assassin (his job)". They're the same thing to him, I think, because he's operating under different cognitive dissonances / ways of thinking than his daughter.

And I knew she was right: I had become a monster. / I'm a monster!

So like, being an assassin — doing assassin-y things; dehumanizing yourself and others — is Bad. Every time, it's bad for Rayla from a physical or emotional standpoint, it's bad for her relationships, it's bad from a narrative perspective, etc etc. When Terry says in 7x02, "There's another way with less darkness and sacrifice," he isn't just talking (narratively) about dark magic.

Sacrifice is the cornerstone of being an an assassin and of Rayla's character arc, and always has been, being both a good thing, and a bad thing.

Rayla can be so selfless that it rounds back into being selfish because she doesn't consider how her actions or her going missing/dying will affect the people around her, and in arc 2, she makes a lot of progress, mostly in S4 and S5. The former lets her learn about the importance of coming back and second chances; and season 5 is about accepting grace, making good on those second chances, and learning how to ask for help. But S6 and S7 make it plain that her issues have not entirely resolved.

In S5-S6, she routinely puts her family on the back-burner, even if it's a burden and causes her immense anguish ("It hurts me to know they're trapped like this. It's agonizing"). In S7, she's willing to push, but because she conceptualizes it for being for Runaan and Ethari's benefit(s), not her own, and instead intends to leave without even reuniting with her second dad.

Hurting Callum is the last thing she wanted (5x04) but she was still willing to do it (s4) and even go so far as killing him (7x09), because her wants and needs and family members don't fundamentally matter when the fate of the world (or even someone she feels bound/obligated to help) is seemingly at stake. And, finally, S7 goes after this by attacking the sacrificial pillar of Rayla's identity has been scaffolded upon: Runaan.

Runaan goes I was wrong. He is also fundamentally changed by returning to Katolis and seeing the eyes of the person he hurt through his actions. He acknowledges that his precision violence, his quest for murder, wasn't necessary.

That he sacrificed his family, and he will not do so again (vs Rayla's assessment of "I can't help you yet [...] I think this is what you would want me to do" in 5x01, of course). Because Runaan has changed, and is not who he once was / does not have the same priorities he once did.

This, more than anything, is Rayla's way in, but as stated, it only happens at the end of S7, not Before.

After S6 aired, I remember still leaning towards Rayla being unwilling to kill him in S7 (as this was a kids' show, and they're not going to kill their central protagonist, particularly with Callum's importance as a mage) but being unsure of how they were going to get her there in just 9 episodes. After all, she was still wiling to sacrifice her parents time and time again (5x01, 5x04, 6x01, 6x05) and it didn't sit quite right with me that she'd Suddenly do a 180 when it was her boyfriend, alternatively, on the line. The fact that Callum, who has routinely encouraged Rayla to not make sacrifices, was also the one encouraging her to make this one, made it doubly complicated; of course she was going to waver, as she's always borrowed from Callum's (and others') viewpoint for her own:

VILLADS: Look at yourself, Rayla. Who are you? What do you stand for? Once you know that, you'll end up where you were always meant to be. (2x06)

RAYLA: I've been thinking about something someone once told me. About how when one person hurts another, and that person hurts them back, it becomes a cycle that never ends. CALLUM: Who told you that? RAYLA: You did. [...] Protecting that dragon doesn't just feel like the thing to do; it feels like the right thing for me to do. It's where I'm meant to be. (2x07)

DARK!CALLUM: Even if that means giving up your sense of right and wrong. (7x06)

RAYLA: An assassin doesn't decide right or wrong. Only life and death. (1x02)

Like, they can't have Rayla try to be an Assassin again after 7x09. That plot arc has been carried through. Therefore, the only one left is the Alternative: not an assassin, but a Hero™ who saves people, especially the people she loves.

Therefore, main reason to leave Callum open to possession as of the end of S7 (as similar drama could've been achieved or staged without him beginning the corruption spell) is for Rayla to un-make her 7x09 choice. She'll fight for him, and save him. She'll chase what she wants, for herself.

I have a few ideas of what could get her to that turning point, i.e.

7 years of a happy relationship with Callum and having a real support system (her family, her village, Callum + Ez, Soren, etc) and she finally feels like she doesn't have anything to atone for

Her and Runaan talking about his past choices and how/why he was wrong, and doesn't want Rayla to make the same mistakes

Rayla realizing/seeing that Callum Will Not sacrifice her, even for the greater good, and while she may be immensely angry/upset at first, she realizes that he was right and she'll do the same/whatever it takes to bring him back from the possession (theory on this that's been going for 3 long ass years + its 5 year old big sister)

Like, 7x09 ended with the heroes trying to kill Aaravos and trap him with dark magic. Both those options are now, seemingly, out of the question, or either imprisoning him with primal/deep magic (which would be very Iffy story wise) or changing his mind is like... some of our only paths through, and that applies to Rayla.

Aaravos wants the Cosmic Council to suffer forever, but Rayla asks how much suffering is enough to pay for the mistakes we've made? In 2x08, she cited that Callum's dark magic coma (the harm/toll it took on him) was him paying the price (cue him trying to trap Aaravos in a Literal Coin even if that means paying with his life). She quickly unlearns that (2x09) and is learning to stand by it (7x09) but still hasn't brought it to fruition; I look forward to seeing her do so.

[notscarsafe]

Okay, so in honor of all the Hermits stirring things up on Twitter today, let's REALISTICALLY consider Season Ten. What do we know, what are our clues, actually???

(Speculating and overanalyzing are really fun so I'm just going to embrace my tendency to Listify Everything and spill my thoughts on Season Ten under the cut!)

First Evidence: The Words of the Hermits.

Nine Days ago Scar said in his Jellie tribute video that Season Ten was “Just around the corner”. Five days ago on the 18th, right after the Hermit meeting that probably finalized their start of the season plans, Cub posted his cryptic tweet whose incorrect capitalizations spelled out “SEASON TEN SOON”. I can't imagine either of those hermits using that phrasing if the season start was more than a month away.

What's more, Gem posted yesterday the 23 that “If hermitcraft s10 doesn’t start soon I’m gonna explode!!!” I can't imagine Gem being that impatient unless there was only a couple of weeks or maybe just one week left before filming.

Second Point to Consider: Hermit Conscientiousness.

The Hermits sre generally really kind to each other and have known when the Hermitcraft Vault Hunters challenge was going to end (Jan 31st, midnight) for months. Per Iskall, the videos of the Herald Vault will drop February 1rst and I can't imagine they'd want video competition between that content and the new season.

Clue Three: The Streaming Activities of the Hermits.

The sheer amount of time Joe has spent playing Vault Hunters lead me to believe they can't have started filming for Season 10 yet. Seriously, when Joe finally has a day without a bonus Vault Hunters stream I'm gonna get mighty suspicious. Joe has streamed more than three hours of Vault Hunters every single day for a week. There was Wednesday when he did his art stream, but I wouldn't expect that to have been a launch day because:

Fact Four: Editing turn around times are so grindy.

The traffic series always has a several day turn around for editing time (IE film Monday post Friday) and several Hermits still struggle to get them out on those days. Even if the hermits were going to ignore the Vault Hunters conflict and start filming season ten this week, tomorrow even, they'd just barely have enough time to squeeze those videos out before the Herald Vault videos. As I'm editing this post Impulse just said he's trying to finish his office reorg this week and have a tour out next week. That does not sound like 'filming this week and editing the new season opener' behavior.

If it goes as Iskall indicated on stream, the Vault Hunter hermits will film the Herald Vault and post as soon as possible on February 1st, meaning the earliest they could kick off season ten would be Friday the 2nd. Even if they film on then I can't imagine them dropping new season videos/having them edited any earlier than Monday the 5th. Furthermore:

Clue Five: A lot of Hermits are very protective of their weekends.

Pearl for example almost didn't join the Decked Out visitor day because it was a weekend. It may be that Monday the 5th would be the more likely earliest useable day for filming after Vault Hunters ended. With editing turn around, we'd guess the start date to be Friday at least.

In Conclusion:

My totally bullshit overanalyzed but still blind guess is that the Hermits will film season ten starting February 5th and will drop videos sometime between February 7th and 9th.

That being said, Cub's cypher today that may have just been trolling said season ten would be “sooner than we'd think” so they may surprise me yet.

Keep an eye out for days where no hermits stream or days where Joe does a brief “1 hour chill stream” to see when the Hermits might be suspiciously behind the scenes. I won't be mad if I'm wrong, overthinking is fun. Either way I hope you join me in hypong up the new season and the new Hermits joining the Hermit Fam. I can't wait!

(Note: this post originally reported the herald vault videos as dropping the 2nd which was an estimate from a stream, but Iskalls video today reported they'd drop the first and this post has been edited to reflect that ❤️)

[cpd-55055]

how die the most people here know that Tracy would leave after Jesse left?

I think it was a mix of subtle hints and wishful thinking. For me the biggest thing that really made me wonder whether Tracy was leaving next season was her instagram posts, especially when she posted birthday posts for all her costars. She never posts for her costars birthdays. So to me, it felt like she was doing it one last time before she left the show. Another big thing was her lack of involvement in the show and promotions. After they wrapped up the Sean storyline, she was sidelined significantly. And I get that 10a had a heavy focus on Hailey, but it kind of reminded me of Jesse’s situation. 9a he was heavily focused on, and then 9b, nothing. Plus her lack of excitement for HER OWN EPISODE and THE FINALE, it was a big flag for me.

And there are more reasons why people started speculating. But these two were my biggest reasons why. And like I said, wishful thinking probably influenced people’s thoughts, especially after the mess of S10.

[roxannepolice]

K, celebrating the fact that my humble supplication for another four months to deal with the freaking paperwork required to present the fruits of my labour was accepted, here's an appendix to the TDF rant.

So, the usual interpretation of Saxon killing Missy is that it's a metaphor of holding yourself back from changing. OK, fair-ish. I'm going to leave aside the whole idea of "cut yourself off from your past if you are to improve as person" and how therapeutically bonkers it is, and focus on the episode tripping in on itself again. Because its whole point, spelled out to the audience just in case they started thinking or something, is that, and I quote "this is where [the Master's] always been going"! As in, you know, we're ignoring all the fucking times over nearly half a century when the Master has in fact stood with the Doctor, and focusing on the brave new world of possiblities that totally weren't there until Missy got cured, praise God!

... Except the episode also acts like they were there all along, just waiting for the Master to "hear the music", whatever that means?

Basically, which one is it, Steven: a change so radical that it would require a hard break from everything you were or the direction this character was on since day 1? Yeah if we go meta on this then the initial intention was for Delgado!Master to go out in a glorious sacrifice, but that didn't work, so going back to that plan is pretty much like limiting Moriarty's part in the sherlockiana to a couple of second-hand relayed statements. Something which you yourself couldn't bring yourself to do.

The bottom line is, TDF was written as a hard full stop for the Master. Finita la commedia, mehrere Leicht, the rest is silence, this is the end my only friend the end. Except that obviously wouldn't work, would it? Like, do you really think that it's viable to actually kill that cockroach of an archetype? There's been lots of ink spilled on how Moffat can't handle never ending story format, resorting to ex machinas over and over after writing the "perfect endings" - and I am not denying! they are perfect! - for characters that are ending-immune, but this is hands down the worst offender.

Like, this is why in the year of our lord 2024 there are still speculations about the Master's regeneration order, even after Chibs explicitly confirmed Spymaster comes after Missy, but then again it's he who did the equivalent of writing "New Earth" with Ten willy-nilly introducing the Master with no explanation after the whole Eye of Harmony shenanigans, not as a sexy doll but an actual biological individual (and again don't get me started on the whole "the Master always just comes back without an explanation"; not in a new body, not after narrrative fullstops, that only happened in 2020, three weeks after somehow Palpatine returned). The idea Thirteen's attitude towards him is rooted in s10 events is its own "yeah, that's deep ignoring a tonne of plotholes that would entail", but I suppose my "Master got evoked from the matrix again to hack Rassilon's PC for love letters to Omega and thoschei smut" headcanon will never get onscreen confirmation either.

I railed myself up, but, again, these are my vents for the sake of warming up my lagging keyboard before more serious work, so as always welcoming pointing out errors in my logic!

[gayleviticus]

new who episodes which I think get worse (not bad- many of these are still good, just less impactful) on rewatch:

Family of Blood - the shock of the Doctor as a human is something that really hit in the RTD era with no master, no time lords, no gallifrey, doctor at his mopiest, but I think it's seriously diminished now and the episode isn't that good with the shock value gone. plus the Martha race dynamics get worse and worse

Vincent and the Doctor - It's a decent episode, but I think it really hits when you don't expect the ending, and when it's built up in your mind to be the greatest episode ever you can't help but notice the bulk of it is a fairly standard monster romp with an emotional ending.

Zygon Invasion - Nothing meaningful happens in the first part and the political allegory is a bit all over the place.

Oxygen - At the time it was a cool atmospheric episode with anti capitalism, but the ending involving permanent consequences for the doctor was genuinely quite cool and unexpected. But I don't think a rewatch knowing where the Doctors blindness is going can really replicate that same feeling of 'wait wtf'. Honestly this is true of most of s10, where the speculation was more interesting than the actual arc (tho the finale is toptier)

Day of the Doctor - I still think it's quite good. but you can't replicate the sheer thrill of moffat in 2013 being willing to completely upturn the status quo after the rtd era dancing around it for years, and on closer examination the plot to save Gallifrey isn't that clever (but it's emotionally resonant).

Journeys End - Far too many characters and when you're watching carefully you notice half of them don't do anything and there's too many asspulls.

Doomsday - Rose and the Doctors separation is a random stroke of bad luck, not even an inevitable tragedy. It still hits emotionally, but it's kinda relying on throwing so many different elements at you you don't notice in the chaos rather than a proper tragic fate.

new who episodes i think get better on a rewatch

Honestly most Moffat arcs when you identify what the thematic/character point is and focus on that rather than the plot mechanics. Particularly s9 where there are so many allusions and ideas weaved in throughout.

Time of the Doctor - without the weight of tying up all the complex timeywimey loose ends, if you watch it firmly as a story about the doctor and Clara's relationship it works well imo.

Hell Bent - again, without the weight of being the epic return of gallifrey and read as about the doctor and Clara's relationship (and a response to donnas mind wipe and an exploration of the role of companion generally) it's great. AND it also pre-emptively skewers the kind of lorebomb nonsense of the Timeless Children 5 years before it even aired.

there are certainly more in both categories but they don't come to mind at the moment

[my-mt-heart]

I love to speculate and to find hidden meanings as much as anyone but I agree with you when you say it's not enough anymore. It hasn't been for a long time. The problem with it is that everyone thinks some important thing is related to their ship/fandom/theory. Back on S4, carylers believed that the jasper stone was evidence that Daryl was thinking about confessing his feelings to Carol and not waste any more time because of the flu. The double capper from S10 is also a straight forward symbol of caryl to us, undisputed. Well, b*thylers think the jasper stone was foreshadowing about their ship, and d*nnie shippers had the same line of thought considering the double capper. People from our and these other two fandoms believed that, on diferent moments, apples related to their ships and not the others. It's like TPTB gaslight everyone one of us while simultaneously pulling our strings. I'm tired of it.

Same. The breadcrumbs need to lead somewhere and by somewhere I mean explicit Caryl canon 😑

[spaceic]

Analysing Carol during s10 ep21 "Diverged" (The Walking Dead)

Carol wanted to fix the torn scarf because she wanted someone to come and fix her after everything shes been through and how unappealing shes turned out, but when she threw it away it symbolised that she knew she could never be fixed and shes like that forever now. "I just want to fix something" meant she felt so helpless and out of control of all the relations in her life. Her and Daryl's luck ran out, the majority of the original group are gone, Ezekiel is dying and Maggie is mad at her for what she did. None of which she wanted and she can't fix any of that since its all already done, so she wanted to be able to feel in control, be able to fix something, anything, but she couldn’t.

The rat was herself basically. Something that could be so sinple to fix had destroyed her and everything around her. It was driving her insane because she couldnt even catch a damn rat. When it escaped the box after she was so close to capturing it could reference when Daryl had begged her to talk to him, gotten her so close to coming back from her revenge, only to fall out again and mess it all up again. When she opens up to Jerry, admits that she thinks shes broken and admits what happens, the rat leaves. The rat may be gone but shes still fixing the damages from it and she won't be able to live without knowing what happened. She destroyed those walls like how she destroyed herself and her relations. Now she needs to fix it, but no matter how much effort she puts in it will never be the same wall again. It will always be changed by what she did when she lost control of herself.

Keeping the garage closed while she tried to catch it shows she caged herself in and thought she needed to do it alone, but when she opened the door and herself to Jerry, it went away.

She doesn't want an apology from Daryl because she knows she doesn't deserve it. After everything she did, to others and to him, she never wants to be forgiven. She wants to carry it with her because thats what she thinks she deserves.

(Speculation, kinda reaching at straws for the next bit)

Dog going with Carol mightve shown that a piece of Daryl was with her, so no matter how angry he is at her, he doesn't want her to get hurt. Also, the two of them ending by going through different doors shows they're never going to be together again, or atleast not for a while. They're still connected but not the same way they used to be. Usually they would share items such as the knife, but Daryl telling her to keep it ends that part of them. They wont be together to share items like that again. Carol would've been there with him normally, so him being alone shows he's different without her, not as used to her being gone. But he moves on. He gets a new knife showing he's not dependent on her, and carol keeps the old one, showing she's still thinking of what used to be there.

Also the episode name kind of proves that theyre never going to be on the same path again.

These are just random thoughts I had while watching the episode, don't know if they really make any sense lol its just me blabbering about my favourite character :p