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[podklb]

If anyone seeing this post likes listening to cool audio projects and want sto spend some time this weekend participating in Pod-Together Weekend Jamfest (I LIKE TO GIVE THINGS SILLY NAMES, SORRY THAT I AM WHO I AM), that would make me really happy! There are so many amazing projects made for Pod-Together this year (and every year) and the creators spent months working on them, and I just want to drown them in love.

Do you like listening to cool fannish audio projects and leaving encouraging comments? Been meaning to check out Pod-Together 2024 works that you haven't gotten around to yet? Want a chance to potentially earn the prize of getting comments on your own work? And being part of a weekend of celebrating these fanworks by showering them with attention and love? Pod-Together Weekend Jamfest is a weekend where we listen to works from the Pod-Together 2024 collection, track our total listening time and comments on a handy spreadsheet, and (if you want to) hang out in the Pod-Together Discord to chat with each other while we do it. If you want to join in, come to the Pod-Together Discord or send a message to me (podklb) on Tumblr and I'll send you the link to the spreadsheet so you can add yourself to it.

We've just gotten started, and so far we're already at 7:42:16 listened to and 16 comments left. I'm so excited to see where we'll be by the end of the weekend! Last year was 75 hours of total listening and 185 comments, and I have a good feeling we're going to smash past those numbers this year!

[podklb]

I love Merrily We Roll Along so much that I went all the way out of my comfort zone to actually *write* something for it! (And then back into my comfort zone to perform/sing that thing.) It wasn't just me, it was a group of wonderful people who worked on the project, but I outlined the whole thing and then wrote the entire first scene, about half of the second scene, and a few parts of the third scene! BIG EXCITING DAY FOR ME!

The project is very deeply dependent on canon knowledge of Merrily, but I have been listening back to it every day just for the joy of feeling like I am getting to actually hear post-canon conversations between some of these beloved characters. I'm putting this in the Merrily tag in the hopes that someone else who knows and loves these characters will see this and will enjoy being pointed towards the project!

[podklb]

Signups are now open for Voiceteam Mystery Box 2023!

Voiceteam Mystery Box is a two-week mini spinoff of Voiceteam to wrap up the holiday season and start the new year! Starting on December 27th, we will announce two new point-earning challenges per day for five days. All ten challenges will remain open until January 9th. Once all the challenges have closed, the team with the highest score wins!

Check out the Rules/FAQ, and if you're interested there's a link at the bottom to where you can sign up!

[podklb]

I cannot recommend this fic highly enough. I am BEGGING everyone who sees this to read it. It is so hot and gorgeous and funny and cathartic and satisfying. I have read it at least 10 times (before it was posted, lucky me!) and if I could skip work and read it again right now, I would. Seriously, I mean it, this will make your day better.

I DID IT, I made a fic in this the year of our lord (ha ha) 2k23 that ISN'T a yuletide fic!!!

It is time travel, it is groundhogs day, it is Aziraphale taking as much time as he needs as many times as he needs to FIGURE THIS SHIT OUT.

The GLORIOUS artwork created for this bang is currently embedded within the story! I will post links here to the tumblr posts as soon as they are up.

willow-tea made an amazing study of their faces glowing in the light, and captured so many perfect details of their miracles together, it's SO COOL. THEIR FACES!!!! The light and shadows just feel magical.

emileedoodle's art is SUCH a fun and also BEAUTIFUL snapshot of what it is like to POOF through time while also having uh MOMENTS. VAVOOM. Their mouths???? AHH.

PLEASE ENJOY AND GIVE THE ARTISTS LOVE!!!

[podklb]

Finalists of the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Dispute by Jacek Stankiewicz from Kraków, Poland: 'I caught this scene while watching birds in the Bialowieza Forest. Young greenfinch was still fed by parents. However, from time to time birds looked like having argument. My friends interpret this scene in two ways: A young naughty kid is arguing with a parent. Or one kid is reporting to the parent that its brother did something wrong: "Look he has broken the glass in the window"'

'Excuse me sir but I think you're a little too young to be smoking' by Dakota Vaccaro from Victor, United States: 'While I was working deep in the Virginian woods, a family of grey foxes took up residence under the deck of the abandoned cottage next to my work housing. One day while practicing their hunting skills on bits of moss and branches, one of the kits lunged at a small chunk of wood and started rolling around with his prize. Tired after his hunt the kit lounged on his belly still holding the wood in his mouth which gave the strong resemblance of a cigar. I was very envious of the kit at this moment cause who wouldn't want to just lay around all day relaxing'

The Rainforest Dandy by Delphine Casimir from Brussels, Belgium: 'This picture was taken in the monkey forest in Ubud, Bali. This place is a crazy place where monkeys are king! Sometimes they give a show, sometimes they climb on you to look for fleas or steal the piece of biscuit you are trying to eat'

Otter Ballerinas by Otter Kwek from Singapore: 'An arabesque smooth coated otter'

Picture me! Picture me!! by Dikla Gabriely from Yokneam, Israel: 'A brown bear in Finland who definitely did everything to make me pay attention to him and focus on him and not the other bears'

Boing! by Lara Mathews from Melbourne, Australia: 'Taken at Westerfolds Park, a beautiful and surprisingly wild pocket of land in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, famous for its kangaroo population. The mob was enjoying some morning sunshine when this joey decided to get silly and try his hand at boxing'

Living the Moment by Kawing Chiu from Staten Island, United States: 'Relax, lay back and enjoy the warm sun... This seal is scratching its face and it is seen lying on the side while his head is supported by his flipper. This image makes the seal like the reclining Buddha statue'

[podklb]

The fandom echo chamber: fanon, microanalysis and conspiracy brain 

As someone who has been in fandom spaces, on and off, for 20 years, I find some fascinating trends popping up in the last decade that I thought to be fandom-specific but clearly aren’t. So, I would like to do a little examination of where those things come from, how they are engaged with, and what it says about the way we consume media. This is a think piece, of sorts, with my brain being the main source. As such, we will spend some time down the memory lane of a fandom-focused millennial.

This is largely brought about by Good Omens. But it’s also not really about Good Omens at all.

Part one. Fanon.

The way we see characters in any story is always skewed by our very selves. This is a neutral statement, and it does not have a value judgement. It’s simply unavoidable. We recognise aspects of them, love aspects of them, and choose aspects of them to highlight based entirely on our own vision of the universe. 

Recognition comes into this. There is a reason so many protagonists of romance novels have a “blank slate” problem. Even when they do not, we love characters who are like us or versions of us that we would like to be. And when we say “we”, I also mean, “me”. 

(I remember very clearly this realisation hit me after a whole season of Doctor Who with writing which I hated utterly when I questioned why I still clung so incredibly hard to Clara Oswald as my favourite companion. Then I looked at myself in the mirror, with my medium-length dark hair, opaque tights, boots, and leather jacket, with spunk and carelessness to the point of recklessness. Oh. Well. That would do it, wouldn’t it?)

Then, there is projection, and, again, this is a neutral statement. Projection exists, and it is completely normal and, dare I say it, valid way of engaging with — well, anything. Is the character queer? Trans? Neurodivergent? Are they in love? Do they like chocolate? Are they a cat person? Well, yes, if this is what the text says, but if the text does not say anything… You tell me. Please, do tell me. Because, in that moment of projection, they are yours. 

And then, there is fandom osmosis, and that is the most fascinating one of them all, the one that is not very easy to note while you are inside the echo chamber. It’s the way we collectively, consciously or not, make decisions on who or what the characters are, what their relationships are, and what happens to them.  

(Back when I was writing egregiously long Guardian recaps on this blog I actually asked if Shen Wei’s power being learning actually was stated anywhere in the canon of the show. Because I had no idea. I have read and reread dozen of fanfics where that is the case, and at some point through enough repetition, it became reality.)

We are all kind of making our own reality here, aren’t we? 

Back when things were happening in a much less centralised manner - in closed livejournal groups, and forums of all shapes and sizes - I don’t remember there being quite as much universally agreed upon fanon. Frankly, I don’t remember much of universally agreed upon anything. But now, everything is in one place: we have this, and we have AO3, and it’s wonderful, it really is so much easier to navigate, but it’s also one gigantic reality-shifting echo chamber, with blogs, reblogs, trends, and rituals. 

Accessibility plays its part, too. If you were, say, in Life on Mars (UK) fandom between seasons, and you wanted to post your speculation fic, you had to have had an account, and then find and gain access to one of the bigger groups (lifein1973 was my poison, but ymmv), and then, if you feel brave you may post it, but also, you may want to do so from your alt account if you wanted to keep yours separate, and then you would have to go through the whole process again. And I’m not saying that fan creations then were somehow inherently better for it than fan creations now (although Life on Mars Hiatus Era is perhaps a bad example - because some of the Speculation Fic there was breathtaking), but there is something to say about the ease of access that made the fandoms go through a big bang of sorts.

(I mean, come on, I can just come here and post this - and I am certain people will read it, and this blog is a pandemic cope baby about Chinese television for goodness sake.)

The canon transformations that happen in the fandom echo chamber truly are fascinating to witness as someone who is more or less a fandom butterfly. I get into something, float around for a bit, then get into something else and move on. I might come back eventually when the need arises, but I don’t sustain a hiatus mind-state. This means that when I float away and return, I find some very intriguing stuff.

Let’s actually look at Good Omens here. Season two aired, and I found it spectacular in its cosy and anguished way; deliberately and intelligently fanfic-y in its plot building; simple but subversive, and so very tender. (I will have to circle back to this eventually, because, truly, I love how deliberately it takes the tropes and shatters them - it’s glorious). And, to me - a person who read the book, watched the first season, hung around AO3 for a few weeks and moved on - absolutely on-point in terms of characterisation. 

So imagine my surprise when the fandom disagreed so vehemently that there are actual multi-tiered theories on how characters were not in possession of their senses. Nothing there, in my mind, ever contradicted any of the stated text, as it stood. This remained a strange little mystery until I did what I always do when I flutter close to an ongoing fandom.

I loaded AO3 and sorted the existing fic by popularity. And there it was, all there: the actual earth-shattering mutual devotion of the angel and the demon; willingness to Fall; openness and long heart-aching confession speeches. There was all of the fanon surrounding Aziraphale and Crowley, which, to me, read as out of character, and to one for whom they became the reality over the last four years, read as truth. 

Again, only neutral statements here. This is not a bad thing, and neither this is a good thing, this is just something that happens, after a while, especially when there are years for the fandom-born ideas to bounce around and stew. I can’t help but think that so much of what we see as real in spaces such as this one is a chimaera of the actual source and all the collective fan additions which had time and space to grow, change, develop, and inspire, reverberating over and over again, until the echoes fill the entirety of the space. 

Eventually, this chimaera becomes a reality. 

Part two. Microanalysis 

Here are my two suppositions on the matter:

1. Some writers really love breadcrumb storytelling. 

Russel T Davies, for instance, on his run of Doctor Who (and, if you are reading it much later - I do mean the original one), loved that technique for his seasonal arcs. What is a Bad Wolf? Who is Harold Saxon? Well, you can watch very very carefully, make a theory, and see it proven right or wrong by the end of the season. 

Naturally, mystery box writers are all about breadcrumb storytelling: your Losts and your Westworlds are all about giving you snippets to get your brain firing, almost challenging you to figure things out just ahead of the reveal. 

2. We, as humans, love breadcrumbs.

And why wouldn’t we? Breadcrumbs are delicious. They are, however, a seasoning, or a coating. They are not the meal. 

Too much metaphor?

Let’s unpack it and start from the beginning.

Pattern recognition colours every aspect of our lives, and it colours the way we view art to a great extent. I think we truly underestimate how much it’s influenced by our lived experiences.

If you are, broadly speaking, living somewhere in Western/North-Western Europe in the 14th century, and you see a painting in which there is a very very large figure surrounded by some smaller figures and holding really tiny figures, you may know absolutely nothing about who those figures are, but you know that the big figure is the Important One, and the small ones are Less Important Ones, and the tiny ones are In Their Care. You know where your reverence would lie, looking at this picture. And, I imagine, as someone living in the 14th century, you may be inspired to a sense of awe looking at this composition, because in the world you live in, this is how art works. 

If you, on the other hand, watch a piece of recorded media and see the eyes of two characters meet as the violins swell, you know what you are being told at that moment. You don’t have to have a film degree to feel a sort of way when you see a green-tinged pallet used, when cross-cuts use juxtaposing images, or notice where your focus is pulled in any given shot. This stuff - this recognition of patterns - has been trained into us by the simple fact that we live in this time, on this planet, and we have been doing so long enough to have engaged recorded media for a period of time. 

As humans, we notice things. Our brains flare up when they see something they recognise, and then we seek to find other similar details and form a bigger picture. This often happens unconsciously, but sometimes it does not. Sometimes we do it on purpose: finding breadcrumbs in stories is a little bit like solving a mystery. It allows us to stretch that brain muscle that puts two and two together. It makes us feel clever. 

So yes, we love breadcrumbs, and, frankly, quite a lot of storytelling takes advantage of this. It’s very useful for foreshadowing, creating thematic coherence, or introducing narrative parallels and complexity. It’s useful for nudging the viewer into one or the other emotional direction, or to cue them into what will happen in the next moment, or what exactly is the one important detail they should pay attention to.

Because this is something media does intentionally, and something we pick up both consciously and not, it is very hard to know when to stop. We don't really ever know when all of the breadcrumbs have been collected. It becomes very easy to get carried away. There is a very specific kind of pleasure in digging into content frame by frame, soundbite by soundbite, chasing that pleasure of finding. 

But it is almost never breadcrumbs all the way down. They are techniques to help us focus on the main event: the story. I truly believe those who make media want it to reach the widest possible audience, and that includes all of us who like to watch every single thing ever created with our Media Analysis Goggles on and those who are just here to enjoy the twists and turns of the story at the pace offered to them. And I think, sometimes in our chase to collect and understand every little clue we forget that media is not made to just cater for us.

One can call it missing a forest for the trees. But I would hate to mix my metaphors, so let’s call it missing a schnitzel for the breadcrumbs. 

Part three. The Conspiracy Brain. 

If you are there with me, in the midst of the excited frenzy, chasing after all those delicious breadcrumbs, then patterns can grow, merge together, and become all-encompassing theories. Let’s call them conspiracy theories, even though this is not what they truly are.

So, why do we believe in conspiracy theories?

One, Because We Have Been Lied To. 

All conspiracies start with distrust.

If you are in fandom spaces - especially if you are in fandom spaces which revolve around a queer fictional couple - especially-especially if you have been in such spaces for a period of time, you have most certainly been lied to at one point or another. 

We don’t even have to talk about Sherlock - and let’s not do that - but do you remember Merlin? Because I remember Merlin. Specifically, I remember the publicity surrounding the first season, with its weaponised usage of “bromance” and assertions that this whole thing is a love story of sorts, and then the daunting realisation that this was all a stunt, deliberately orchestrated to gather viewership. 

And, because we were lied to in such a deliberate manner for such an extensive period of time, I genuinely believe that it forever altered our pattern recognition habits, because what was this if not encouragement to read into things? Now we are trained to read between the lines or see little cries for help where they might not be. Because we were told, over and over again, that we should.

(Yes, I think we are all existing in these spaces coloured by the trauma of queer-bating. I am, however, looking forward to a world where I can unlearn all of that.)

Two, Cognitive Dissonance.

The chain reaction works a bit like this: the world is wrong - it can’t possibly be wrong by coincidence - this must be on purpose - someone is responsible for it.

Being Lied To is a preamble, but cognitive dissonance is where it all originates. In so many cross-fandom theories I have noticed a four-step process:

A) this is not good

B) this author could not have made a mistake 

C) this must be done on purpose

D) here is why 

(Funny thing is, I have been on the receiving end of the small conspiracy spiral, and it is a very interesting experience. Not relevant to this conversation is the fact that a lot of my job revolves around storytelling. What is relevant is that my hobbies also revolve around storytelling. And one of them is DnD. Now, imagine my genuine shock when one of the players I am currently writing a campaign for noticed a small detail that did not make a logical sense within the complexity of the world, and latched on to it as something clearly indicating some kind of a secret subplot. Their thinking process also went a bit like this: this detail is not a good piece of writing — this DM knows how to tell stories well — this is obviously there on purpose. It was not there on purpose. I created a clumsy shorthand. I erred, in that pesky manner humans tend to. And, seeing this entire thought process recited to me directly in the moment, I felt somewhere between flattered and mortified.)

This whole line of thinking, I think, exists on a knife’s edge between veneration and brutal criticism, relentlessly dissecting everything “wrong”, with a reverent “but this is deliberate” attached to it like a vice, because it is preferable to a simple conclusion that the author let you down, in one way or another. 

Three, Intentionality 

I believe that there is no right or wrong way of engaging with stories, regardless of their medium, and assuming no one gets hurt in the process. While in a strictly academic way, there is a “correct” way of reading (and reading into) media, we here are largely not academics but consumers; consumption is subjective.

However, this all changes when intentionality is ascribed. 

The one I find particularly fascinating is the intentionality of “making it bad on purpose” because, as open-minded as I intend to always be, this just does not happen.

It certainly does not happen in long-form media. Even in the bread-crumb mystery box-type long-form media. 

When television programs underdeliver, they also underperform, and then they get cancelled.

If all the elements of Westworld Season 4 that did not sit together in a completely satisfactory way were written deliberately as some sort of deconstruction for the final season to explore, then it failed because that final season will now never come.

(There will likely never be a Secret Fourth Episode.)

And look, I am not here to refute your theories. Creativity is fun, and theorising is fantastic. 

But, perhaps, when the line of thought ventures into the “bad on purpose” territory, it could be recognised for what it is: disappointment and optimism, attempting to coexist in a single space. And I relate to that, I do, and I am sorry that there is even a need for this line of thinking. It’s always so incredibly disappointing that a creator you believed to be devoid of flaws makes something that does not hit in the way you hoped it would. It’s pretty heartbreaking. 

Unfortunately, people make mistakes. We are all fallible that way. 

Four, Wildfire.

Then, when the crumbs are found, a theory is crafted, and intentionality is ascribed, all that needs to happen is for it to catch on. And hey, what better place for it than this massive hollow funnel that we exist in, where thoughts, ideas and interpretations reverberate so much they become inextricable from the source material in collective consciousness. 

Conspiracy theories create alternate realities, very much like we all do here. 

So where are we now?

I am not here to tell you what is right and what is wrong; what is true, and what is not. We are all entitled to engage with anything we wish, in whichever way we wish to do it. This is not it, at all. 

All I am saying is… listen.

Do you hear that echo? 

I do. 

[podklb]

[podklb]

blood is basically the most normal thing for a sword to hunger for. if a sword gained sentience and started asking me for blood i'd be like yeah i thought you might say that

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Just when I thought I couldn’t be radicalized more, I learn the CEO of my “small” family company owns not two but THREE houses

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Rating band names by my likelihood to obey them as commands

Train: 6/10. Not very specific, but regardless of context, I do need to do it more. However, I dislike effort.

Maroon 5: 2/10. Not sure what I am marooning five of, but it seems kind of impractical to do remotely, and I don’t particularly want to be stuck on an isolated coast with these five entities.

Journey: 6/10. Only if I’m not tired.

OK Go: 5/10. I’m a big fan of leaving situations. However, if I am already unburdened by the horrors of situations, going might bring me INTO a situation, and that’s the opposite of what I want.

Fall Out Boy: 4/10. I don’t like conflict for no reason, but thanks for the gender!

Walk Off The Earth: 0/10. Gravity makes this difficult.

Elbow: 11/10. I am always ready to commit violence with my bones.

Meet Me @ The Altar: 9/10. Like the wedding type or the ritual sacrifice type? Either way, I should change outfits first.

Dropkick Murphys: 1/10. I only know one Murphy who I would want to dropkick, but she’s probably old enough now for that to be immoral.

Mother Mother: 8/10. I’m told I have a chronic case of mom friend.

Panic! At The Disco: 7/10. The disco is difficult to find these days, but I am constantly in a state of near-panic, so I think I could make it work given the opportunity.

Rise Against: Not sure what we’re rising against, but I’m typically down for a good rebellion. 8/10

Smash Mouth: 9/10. Smash someone’s mouth? With what? My fist? My own mouth? I’m usually down for one or the other.

Seal: 3/10. Not very specific. I’ve licked too many envelopes in the past month and I have no desire to repeat the experience.

WALK THE MOON: 3/10. I do want to do this. However, my opportunities to do so have been severely limited by NASA’s security.

Spoon: 9/10. Yeah, I’ll cuddle.

Foster The People: 7/10. Depends on the people.

Kiss: 9/10. Depends on who or what I am kissing, but usually there’s someone around who is up for it. If not, I will kiss the nearest stuffed animal on their soft little head.

Cage The Elephant: 0/10. Cruel, unethical, and unwise. How dare you.

Rage Against The Machine: 1000/10. Fuck yeah, I will.

Imagine Dragons: 1000000/10. Ohohoho, don’t mind if I do.

[podklb]

I’ve said before that I think it could make sense that Nate might want to return as assistant kitman for a little bit - to concentrate on being happy, to be one with the guys, to join in with all the team rituals he was barred from in S1. I also think that, going by clips from 3x12 and dialogue from 3x11, it’s not ridiculous to assume that he ended up back as coach, and that the kitman stint was intended as temporary (and likely done at Nate’s instigation).

However, do to that well it really needed a couple of additional scenes, which I can only assume had to be cut to save time…

-

“Good to have you back, mate,” Colin says, coming up to Nate while the team come together, chatting and laughing over Isaac’s costume. “But what are you doing as assistant kitman? We thought you were gonna be our coach again.”

“Oh! Oh, I know that. But, you know, it was all very sudden, and there wouldn’t have been time to draw up a new coaching contract before the season ended, and I still wanted to return in whatever capacity I could, and I - ” Nate’s cheerful ramble ends, his gaze slides over to where Will is shaking Isaac’s hand, “I had some unfinished business here, you know? Besides, I always enjoyed spending time in the locker room with you lot.”

“Glad to hear it, boyo. But you’re going to be coaching us next season, right? We didn’t trek it all the way over to Tooting just to set you up doing laundry, you know.”

“Hey, I’ll have you know that my fabric softener blend has been much sought after by members of the team,” Nate snarks. “And their mums.”

Colin just looks flatly at Nate.

Keep reading

[podklb]

Pod-together is a fandom fest where writers and podficcers create together—the writer creating text specifically intended for audio, and the podficcer creating the audio. If that sounds fun to you, sign-ups are open until June 10th! You can find instructions to sign up, rules, and FAQ at the dreamwidth site linked above.

Sign-ups come in two flavors. If you would like the mods to match you with someone with similar fandom interests, sign up for Matchmaker Sign-Ups. If you would like to sign up with a partner, we also have Group Sign-Ups.

Writing is due July 23rd, and podfic is due August 20th. The minimum length for pod-together projects is 1000 words or 10 minutes of audio.

This is our 13th year running this challenge, and participants usually have a ton of fun and create amazing stuff, with everything from the typical style of fannish stories to submissions with filk, poetry, found footage/audio drama, sound effects, massive multi-voice collaborations, immersive soundscapes, playable games, and multiple languages.

If you’re on the fence and have questions, or want to try to scout a group before signing up, we have a section of our Discord open just for that. You can find a link to the Discord in the sign-up post on our dreamwidth!

visit our Dreamwidth here for more details!

[podklb]

SILENCE | 2.4 & 3.12 |

[podklb]

Regarding the Nate of it all… His initially returning as assistant kitman kinda made sense to me: not only do I think Nate’s continuing to hold himself back (much as he did at Taste of Athens) as some form of repentance, but also Lloyd’s comment of ‘be successful, don’t be successful, just be happy’ struck me. All through the episode we saw Nate being happy, just delighted to be in the mix with the Greyhounds again, making craft boxes and prioritising having fun and rebuilding those relationships over achieving success in his career. Which is an important thing for his character to do for himself.

And as we saw at Taste of Athens, Nate doesn’t need to be in a high paying job to kill it; he’s a genius whether he’s devising tactics or folding laundry and plying customers with nuts. (It wasn’t that he ever seemed to be unhappy being a kitman in season 1, but being a bullied, ignored, overlooked kitman, certainly. And we know that isn’t going to happen again.)

However, crucially, he does seem to become a member of the coaching staff again in the flash-forward/dream montage after Roy becomes the new manager of Richmond. With Ted gone there’s another space on the coaching team, and given that Nate’s Oscar Decoy won them the whole dang match, I think it’s pretty clear who would take it. (Also from a prosaic admin perspective: Richmond are currently working on a 3-coach system. It would make a lot more sense to hire Nate as kitman for a week or two, then slot Roy into Ted’s place and Nate into Roy’s place: rather than sort out a new hierarchy and more expensive salary for those couple of weeks.)

Roy’s always made it clear that Nate knows how to do the bits of the job that he doesn’t, and I think Roy would have leapt at the chance to get Nate back in as a coach. He was being set up to return as a coach in 3x11 and it looks like that’s what he did, he just took care of some unfinished business first.

[podklb]

1. They win the whole fucking thing, Nate and Ted reunite, Nate coaches at Richmond and HELPS them win the whole fucking them, Roy and Keeley get back together (in a way that still leaves OT3 headcanons on the table), Beard and Jane break up 🤞, Rebecca ends up happy with some kind of relationship with a child, Ted and Henry end up in a situation that will work for both of them longterm, we get at least a couple cameos from characters we haven't seen lately, and maybe some kind of satisfying ending note for Paul, Baz, and Jeremy.

2. Ted and Nate will get to have a continued close/deepening relationship after the end of this episode, canon OT3, Ted and Rebecca kiss, Shandy returns in a way that I find satisfying, massive amount of Jane screentime but without a Jane/Beard ending, Nate and Jade break up, actual satisfying resolution to Sam's for his integrity so it didn't just end with him having to carry on while enduring hate crimes and government corruption keeping him off Nigeria's team.

3. Ted and Beard end up in separate countries, Ted and Nate end up in separate countries, Beard and Jane stay together (I know I also said I expect them to break up, I contain multitudes), no revisiting of most of the plot threads that we had hoped would be revisited and made more complex or more complete, Van Damme keeps the name Van Damme.

4. Someone dies, additional sexual harassment (like the red string thing), someone we love ends the show clearly unhappy, Ted's story ends in a way I am unable to empathize with/relate to/understand, Shandy returns in a way I find unsatisfying, they fail to stick the landing with Nate.

5. Ted, Rebecca, Beard, Nate, Keeley, Sam, Jamie, Roy.

6. SO FUCKING RELIEVED, I am so tired. Maybe I will be sad later but I am a very anxious person and the anxiety will finally be over in just a few hours. I have overall found being part of this fandom while S3 was airing so much worse than being part of this fandom between seasons, and I am glad this phase of fandom is almost complete!

7. Fanfiction that I like and that aligns with my tastes and interests, continuing to hang out with my TL friends group chat (Quadribeagles!!!), continuing to make fanworks, if I feel inspired to—and I hope I will!

8. Brainstorming a Ted/Nate fic that doesn't need to include an apology/reconciliation scene because they have already had their canon apology/reconciliation!

Pre-Finale Questions

Here are the questions I asked my friends Discord as we wait for the Ted Lasso finale. We all answered them for each other already, but cross-posting them here just for fun in case anyone else wants to play!

List of things you expect will happen and want to happen

List of things you want to happen but do not expect to happen.

List of things you expect will happen and DO NOT WANT to happen

List of things you DO NOT WANT to happen and do not expect will happen

What characters do you want to have the most focus this episode? List as many as you want, but in order with TOP most focus first.

How are you feeling about the idea of canon ending?

What do you think will be helpful to you when processing the last episode?

What fanwork are you most excited to focus on once canon is complete and settled?

[podklb]

Pre-Finale Questions

Here are the questions I asked my friends Discord as we wait for the Ted Lasso finale. We all answered them for each other already, but cross-posting them here just for fun in case anyone else wants to play!

List of things you expect will happen and want to happen

List of things you want to happen but do not expect to happen.

List of things you expect will happen and DO NOT WANT to happen

List of things you DO NOT WANT to happen and do not expect will happen

What characters do you want to have the most focus this episode? List as many as you want, but in order with TOP most focus first.

How are you feeling about the idea of canon ending?

What do you think will be helpful to you when processing the last episode?

What fanwork are you most excited to focus on once canon is complete and settled?

[podklb]

it’s about embracing yourself, even the things you thought humiliating (re: nate’s wonder kid shirt in this)

also about me having a thing for nick mohammed’s arms