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neikikardartv · 11 months

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Buffy Still Slays with its use of Supernatural

Buffy The Vampire Slayer is a cult classic TV series that aired from 1997-2003 with 7 seasons. The show follows the titular vampire slayer Buffy after she is chosen to be the slayer by fate “to battle against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness”, as the theme song goes. After becoming the Slayer she relocates from LA to Sunnydale California, which is located on a “Hellmouth” (meaning demons are attracted to the area). For her highschool is Hell literally. Buffy has to fight both literal and figurative demons alongside her friends who are affectionately referred to as the Scooby Gang. The format of the show is mainly ‘monster of the week’ style with each season having an overarching ‘Big Bad’ villain plotline. The cult following of Buffy has actually garnered lots of academic attention and scholarly articles, being referred to as “Buffy studies”.

Unlike how the article described Penny Dreadful I don’t believe that Buffy is anti-feminist in its subtext. I believe that Buffy instead uses the supernatural and gothic tropes to portray the complexity of the adolescent girl experience and coming of age.

What concepts of Gothic doubling function to define the natural from the supernatural?

Buffy as a series has many Gothic elements with its themes and supernatural settings and even pastiche characters. Buffy herself is a modern Gothic heroine, while she is still virtuous she also possesses physical and mental strength. Many Gothic doubles are featured in the show as supernatural beings most notably being the vampires that terrorize Sunnydale. In the show vampires are the epitome of one’s shadow self, they are all “id”, once someone turns they become a cruel sadistic version of themselves with no soul or humanity. There is usually a very clear line between the natural and supernatural with vampires as there are countless scenes of Buffy staking each vampire she sees in her slayer duties that protect the town. The show uses visual effects to completely “other” the faces of vampires when they are attacking humans and vampires aren’t meant to be humanized at all.

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(Buffy slaying stop around 30s)

There is one notable exception to that rule in the early seasons that comes in Buffy’s first love interest Angel. Angel is unique in that he is a 200 something year old vampire that has been cursed with having a soul. This makes him feel remorse for all the evil acts he committed prior to the curse. When Buffy first meets Angel she is appalled to find out that he is a vampire and immediately wants to stake him. Once he proves himself to be “a good vampire” he and Buffy form a relationship and he attacks other vampires alongside her.

Angel is a very interesting character in that his gothic double is a part of his vampire form as well, he has an alter ego that comes out when he is soulless that goes by “Angelus”. Angelus first comes out in a pivotal scene after Buffy loses her virginity to him, next thing we know he’s become that guy who changes into an asshole after sex. This scene happens the morning after they had sex (he was gone when she woke up).

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(skip 40s in).

As you can see Angel’s gothic double Angelus is a stereotypical asshole. Prior to this he was a loving and protective boyfriend, afterwards he becomes one of the seasons “Big Bads” who terrorizes Buffy’s friends and family and tries to destroy the world. In his Angelus soulless form Angel is back to being ‘othered’ and Buffy ends up having to kill him in the finale (he does come back as Angel again, spoiler). Through this dichotomy the divide between supernatural and natural becomes clearly defined, the Angel/Angelus gothic double shows that it actually is a lack of humanity that truly separates the supernatural from the natural.

In what ways is gender performativity tied to the supernatural?

Gender performativity is tied to the supernatural in that character’s Gothic doubles often represent extreme stereotypes of masculine and feminine gender performativity. The doubles can sometimes even be manifestations of someone’s desire to ‘perform gender’ which is amplified by the supernatural. One such instance of this occurs in Season 3 episode 4 titled, “Beauty and the Beasts” . In this episode another Jekyll/Hyde like scenario occurs in what seems to be a normal highschool boy named Pete, who is responsible for a string of gruesome murders. Pete is dating another student Debbie and it is revealed that he has been taking a potion that transforms him into a monster. As seen in this clip.

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(1:00m in)

As you can see here it is pretty on the nose with the abusive boyfriend turning into an actual monster metaphor. In the clip it is revealed that Peter made the monster potion to, “Be the man [Debbie] wanted”. Pete has created a potion that forces him to perform gender and it leads him to become a monster double of himself. By having supernatural entities be extreme representations of gender performativity Buffy is able to demonstrate how gender stereotypes can be harmful.

How does the series use the supernatural to liberate characters from oppressive normalcy?

Buffy’s supernatural strength and fighting abilities that come with being the “chosen one” as a slayer, liberate her from oppressive normalcy. Prior to being a slayer Buffy was a popular cheerleader at her old school. After she is granted her slayer duties she struggles with not leading a normal life anymore.

This struggle between accepting being a slayer and wanting to just be normal is Buffy’s main internal conflict in the earlier seasons. While, at first she doesn't find abilities liberating she soon is able to accept her fate and enjoys her power in slaying and saving others.

Another character that is liberated from oppressive normalcy through the supernatural, is Buffy’s best friend Willow. Willow starts out in the series as a shy, studious girl. While she continues to be studious she begins to use her brains to also learn witchcraft. This escalates when Willow goes to college and joins a Wicca group on campus. While expanding her powers with the group she also meets another Wicca named Tara who becomes her love interest; leading her to realize she’s a lesbian (prior to this she had a boyfriend). Willow’s journey with growing her witch powers also aligns with her self discovery and coming out, liberating her from oppressive heteronormativity.

In what ways do Gothic doubles allow characters to transgress scripted gender that society imposes on them?

Early on in her witchcraft abilities, in the episode Doppelgangland, Willow casts a spell that accidentally puts her Vampire doppelganger from another universe into their world. This scene occurs before that happens.

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(2:00-3:00 min).

As you can see Willow is upset with how she is characterized by others. The article states that,“the double can be liberating for women (Saxey 2010), as it can allow them to transgress the traditional gender boundaries imposed on them by society”. Willow’s vampire double is the opposite of her and her desire to be less like herself ends up backfiring when her double terrorizes Sunnydale.

Clip from after she is captured.

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(2:20-3:20).

“That’s me as a vampire? I’m so evil..and skanky.. and I think i’m kinda gay…”

As shown, Willow’s gothic double transgresses Willow’s gender script of being sweet, innocent, and wearing fuzzy pink sweaters. Her doppelganger has dominatrix tendencies and is much more confident and sexual. Interestingly, the first hint of Willow being gay is with her double, showing that her double has been able to transgress the heteronormative gender script as well. As Angel’s, “Well actually...” suggests Willow’s gothic double is a representation of her most buried desires.

How are characters rewarded or punished for subverting their expected character traits?

Willow’s want to subvert her “old reliable” self ends up with her being punished as her plan backfires. Her extreme gothic double ends up being killed immediately via stake after she is returned to her original dimension (Interestingly, Willow didn’t want them to kill her double and instead casts a spell to return her). At the end of the episode we see that her gothic double actually helped her achieve her goal of not being forced to do her athlete classmate’s homework, as he is now intimidated by her. Her gothic double is punished for her gender digressions but her assertiveness ends up benefiting Willow by not letting her be ‘walked over’ anymore.

Buffy’s subversion of her expected feminine character traits are rewarded by her heroism. Her supernatural strength keeps her and her loved ones from being killed and also allows her to easily attack her unsuspecting creepy male classmates, who are always taken aback by her strength. This leads many of her male peers to refer to her as a “freak’ and someone to avoid, despite her looks and wit. However, this doesn’t phase Buffy as she enjoys the freedom that comes with her ability to protect herself.

Questions

Do you think that mythologizing the issues that come with ‘coming of age’, in the form of having the supernatural represent teenage woes, make these concepts more universal and accessible to young viewers?

Why do you think the show made Buffy’s two main love interests (Angel and then former nemesis Spike) vampires, even though her whole thing is that she’s ‘the slayer’?

Do you think that Buffy continuing to ‘other’ and slay vampires even while dating one is ethical? When they could also be potentially redeemed?

How do you think the face altering visual effects contribute to the ‘othering’ of vampires in the show?

@theuncannyprofessoro

Some Articles I read:

#oxyspeculativetv

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gohyuck · 3 years

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smoke and cherries

or, alternatively, bonnie & clyde

pairing: criminal!jeong yunho x criminal!reader

genre: fluff (between yunho & the reader), some suggestiveness

warnings: mentions of smoking cigarettes, armed robbery, guns, theft, what is literally cold-blooded murder actually (minor character death of a convenience store clerk), reader and yunho are definitely like… screws lose in a murdery way, reader sucks blood off of yunho’s fingers for a second (i’m so sorry it’s kinda fucked up), yunho blows his smoke into the reader’s face but it’s like consensual, littering

word count: 1.4k

“since when d’you keep suckers on you?” yunho lets the question escape out the side of his mouth in tandem with the smoke of his cigarette, and when you look over at your other half, his expression is as amused as his words are inquisitive. his eyes are already back on the road ahead of you, though you don’t doubt that he’d been gazing upon you a second ago when he’d asked about your new vice. you swirl your tongue around the bright red candy one more time for good measure before pushing it into one of your cheeks, stick jutting out the very corner of your slightly chapped lips.

they hadn’t had cherry back when you’d been growing up, the concept of it only having been introduced during your high school years. you find that it’s your favorite flavor now. perhaps novelty doesn’t wear off.

“since this mornin’,” you respond after a beat, your lips pulling into a teasing grin while you allow your words to sink in. once the meaning behind your words has settled, yunho can’t help but laugh softly but genuinely, removing the Lucky Strike from between his lips before resting his hand, cigarette between two lithe fingers, over the edge of the window. it’s a sweet moment between lovers; a shared secret.

between the soft mirth in your eyes and the red stain on your tongue, between yunho’s rounded features and good-natured gaze , there’s not an outsider in the world that would guess just what the two of you find so funny.

you’d grabbed a bag of lollipops at the Southland Ice Company store the two of you had hit up in the morning. there’d been a sign - hand-painted, by the looks of it - on the wall above the candy bin, something or the other about a discounted rate. free is a discount, right?

the two of you may seem sweet, unassuming, even kind in this stolen moment, but if anyone knows better, it’s you. then again, not many people have seen you with red stains on your clothes and lived to tell the tale. even less have survived yunho when his eyes switch from soft and loving to a cold, steely glare. he never looks angry, no: just soulless. you have never seen your lover feel remorse.

this thrills you. birds of a feather.

you let your tongue wrap around the lollipop once more, wrapping a finger around the stick to pull it out of your mouth for a second to savor the flavor that now coats your tongue. there’s a torn-open package with other cherry candies in the back somewhere, hidden under piles of other things that were free-but-not-really. the clerk had been too busy cowering under your boyfriend’s sneer - and the barrel of his Browning Automatic - to notice you swiping the suckers.

on one hand, you can’t imagine a better image to see before dying: there’s something undeniably sexy about yunho with his finger against a trigger and a lack of soul behind his eyes. on the other… it’s just a little fascinating, you think. working day in and day out at a shitty job must be the most awful, crushing thing possible, and yet the fool behind the Southland counter still wants to live. he’s still sobbing, snot running over his lips and a wretched, choking noise bubbling up from the depths of his throat as he begs for his pathetic little life, hands shaking as he drops stacks of bills into the bag in yunho’s other hand.

you stuff the lollipops into your own oversized bag, scouring the shelves for things of more worth. there’ll be a shady dealer or two in a neighboring city that’ll be willing to take most anything off of your hands, you’re sure of it. at first, the man’s hysterics don’t really bother you: this is fairly run-of-the-mill. still, your patience wears away over time: there’s only so much caterwauling you can take before your eardrums beg for release.

“baby,” you call from one end of the store, dropping a few bottles of medicine into your bag, not bothering to read their labels. the bawling rises in volume at the sound of your voice. before you can say anything else about getting the collateral to be quiet, yunho beats you to it.

“shut the fuck up,” he growls, voice loud enough and low enough that you can hear him clearly despite being across the cramped building. there’s a dull thunking noise, followed by a soft whimper, and you know that the barrel of yunho’s rifle is now against the clerk’s forehead. you can’t help the giggle that escapes you: you love this part. your boyfriend lets out an airy chuckle in response to your laughter, because what makes you happy makes him happy.

“you done?” yunho calls, and by how light his tone is, you know that he’s talking to you. you take a moment to sift through what you have, and, upon realizing that you’re done for now, you call out an equally pleasant ‘mhm!’.

“go ahead and get the car started for me then, darling,” your lover responds. the clerk lets out a wet gasp, not knowing if this means life or death for him. poor, naive, still-hopeful little thing. yunho pushes the cool metal into his skin with a miniscule amount of heightened force as he speaks to you with the casualness of a white picket fence couple in suburbia. “i won’t be but a minute.”

the bang had been muffled, but you’d heard it nonetheless, even from the car, just as you’d grabbed a couple of lollipops from the package before throwing the whole thing back into the back seat. just as yunho’d stalked out, bag full of cash and dirtied gun in hand, you’d slid into the passenger seat. he’d dropped everything into the back alongside your stuff before hitting the gas, making you fear for your life for one beautiful moment before regaining control of the car.

he’d raised a hand up once he was sure of his place on the road, placing two fingers against your lips. you’d tasted the clerk’s blood then, sitting heavy against your taste-buds as you pulled it off of yunho’s skin. you know his process well: even after putting a hole in the poor man’s head, yunho would’ve wrapped one of his hands around the victim’s throat, mostly to ensure his death. you can never be too careful, after all.

you could see it clearly, the blood dripping down the side of the dead man’s face and over your boyfriend’s fingers. there’s something surreal about it. always is. yunho had pulled his fingers from your mouth with a pop, laughing softly when you’d nipped at his fingertips for a moment before pressing a kiss to his knuckles. he’d dropped his hand to your thigh just as you’d lit a cigarette for him. the same hand is currently wrapped idly around the top of the steering wheel.

“thought you were gonna use the candy to try ‘n quit cigs for a second there,” yunho states at a stop light, taking a drag of his own cigarette before turning towards you. you don’t turn towards him, knowing full well that he’s going to playfully blow smoke at the side of your face.

he does so. you can’t help your smile.

“you’re the one that needs to quit,” you respond easily, rolling your eyes solely for good measure. you aren’t lying, not really: you smoke maybe once or twice a day. your lover goes through a pack in the same time. the smoke wraps around you like an old friend. nobody in the surrounding cars knows who you are, what you do. you feel safe. yunho drops the cig stub out the window onto the road, and you realize he’d blown his last smoke cloud at you. your smile grows.

��i need to quit, hm?” he raises an eyebrow, though his eyes smile just as his mouth does.

“you’re the one that’s addicted.” you affirm your own claim, words a little slurred around the lollipop in your mouth. yunho laughs, real and loud, before reaching over to pinch the end of your lollipop’s stick, tugging on it gently. you realize that he isn’t trying to take it from you; rather, he’s simply pulling you closer to him. you oblige.

he pulls harder once, and you part your teeth to allow him to pull the sucker off of your tongue. yunho leans close, lips brushing over yours, before he speaks again.

“the only thing ‘m addicted to is you, sweetheart.”

he tastes of real smoke, and you taste of fake cherries. it doesn’t get any better than this.

#yunho fluff #yunho smut #yunho x reader #jeong yunho x reader #ateez fluff #yunho #ateez smut #yunho scenario #yunho scenarios

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lewis-winters · 4 years

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Hi! i really enjoy your daemon au and i-ve gone and watched the new his dark materials series because of it. i love your take on daemons and was wondering if you have nymore headcanons for the other boys? what's luz's daemon? liptons? how do you pick their names? are there any daemons who Re the same sex as their humans? you dont have to rwply if you dont want to i just wanted to tell you i enjoy your world very much!!

Oh, hi! I’m glad you’re watching the new His Dark Materials adaptation! It’s pretty good, huh?

I do have headcanons for not just most of the boys but for the world itself. Though I also call it His Dark Materials!AU alongside daemon!AU it’s actually more the latter than the former. The only things I carried over into this AU from the original world of His Dark Materials are the existence of daemons, the fact that daemons are made of Dust particles, and the existence of witches. The magisterium or any kind of theocracy doesn’t exist. The authority and the angels also do not carry over. Instead, our own religions exist, but there’s just as much emphasis on spiritualism and mysticism as there is on moralism, which I believe would be the natural development of religion in this world where your soul/daemon, the spiritual aspect of you, is literally there for everybody else to see.

All of the boys have small or medium sized daemons, the biggest probably belonging to that of Ron and Tab, who have an Ocelot daemon and a sheepdog daemon respectively. The reason for this being that small or medium sized daemons are easily carried and they, alongside bird or other kinds of flying daemons, are preferred by the airborne. You still gotta jump out of a perfectly good airplane largely undetected. Can’t do that with an elephant daemon.

Ok. This got real long so I’m putting the rest under the cut. tw: mentions of death, trauma, and mutilation.

Some of the younger boys’ daemons haven’t settled. Miller, Hashey, Garcia, and Jackson. Hashey and Garcia’s settle in Hageneu. Miller and Jackson never get the chance.

Shifty’s daemon, Myrtle, is a Capybara. But he doesn’t know that. Every time somebody asked him what his daemon was, he’d shrug, say ‘Don’t rightly know,’ then leave it at that. What can he do? Capybara’s aren’t native to Virginia and he’s never been out of Virginia. Webster was the one to tell him that Myrtle was a Capybara because he’d read about them in a book somewhere that one time. Myrtle was startled by this and said; “I thought I was some kind of dog!” that was one of the few times she ever spoke out-loud during the whole war.

As I’ve said before in this post, Lew’s daemon is a chameleon named Amalthea. For all of the events of episode 9, Lew kept her in his pocket and that scared almost everybody shitless, because it made it seem like he was walking around without a daemon. The replacements assigned to them around that time, like O’Keefe, thought he didn’t have a soul. He never bothered to correct them because that meant letting Amalthea out, and the idea of her being in the open and vulnerable made him especially ill. He’d rather people thought he was soulless than allow himself and Amalthea to get hurt again. Which is so Lewis.

Skip has a hummingbird daemon named Ilaria, which is a name that means happiness and joy. This daemon-human duo wasn’t hard for me to figure out. It just fits.

Malarkey’s daemon is an artic hare with a summer coat named Felis. She’s settled, but after Foy and after losing Skip and Alex and Buck, she changes again. Subtlely, of course, and not wholely. She stays an artic hare, but instead of a summer coat, she permanently has a winter coat.

It’s not uncommon in this world for your daemon to change after severe trauma. I bet as the field of psychology expands, so does the understanding of trauma’s effects on the soul expand. There’s many studies on the changing of once settled daemons in relation to soldiers’ PTSD.

Buck’s daemon, a male bald eagle named Romulus, changes entirely. Still a bird, but instead of an eagle, he turns into a snowy owl. Before the war, he was a chatty daemon. After, he barely speaks and only does so to Buck and, very rarely, to those close to them.

Eugene Sledge’s male daemon, Daecon goes from a blood hound and gets turned into a Luzon bleeding heart-- which, I know is on the nose but it’s just. It’s such a cool bird, ya’ll. I’ve seen one up-close and ever since that day, I have not known any peace. The shift would be painful and would happen very slowly. It was actually horrific and was a trauma in and of itself. That was the last time they ever changed, though.

I also headcanon that the longer you’ve been settled, the harder and more painful the shift.

Merriell Shelton’s daemon settles in Gloucester. Into what, I’m not sure yet, but a part of me thinks she’s settled into some kind of big cat from the rain forests. Either a cloud leopard or a jaguar. Her name’s Charlotte but he calls her Lottie. Don’t ask me why. It just fits.

That being said, I have some Thoughts about people with big cat daemons. They’re usually aloof. Like, they make a very impactful first impression but they’re mostly solitary individuals who are weird af and difficult to get to know. It takes a really special person to tame a human with a big cat daemon. Once you earn their trust, that’s for life. They’re also really self-assured and are very secure in their sense of self. There is almost little to no tension between big cat daemons and their humans, and if there is, it gets explosive.

Ron Speirs has a big cat daemon, a female Ocelot named Aurele. She never talks, not even to Ron. They have this silent gaze/telepathy going on. Ron also takes on a couple of animalistic traits because of it. They could also... stretch their bond really far? Which is scary as fuck. People think he’s the son of a witch who, in her desperation to make him immortal, made him go through the ritual that allows a witch and her daemon to part for long periods of time and great distances. This is not true. Ron and Aurele just have really high pain tolerance.

Eugene Roe, on the other hand, is the son of a witch. His maman, however, did not make him go through the ritual because he’s not her first son. She knows the pain of outliving her sons well. She loves him all the same but understands that he will die well before her. Eugene’s daemon is a male kinkajou named Louis. Which is both a surprise and also not. For much of the war there’s a lot of tension there. Louis craves connection with others, Roe needs isolation to keep their sanity. It kind of turns into this thing where, if you wanted to comfort Roe or be close to him, you’d have to go through his daemon instead.

Babe’s daemon is a squirrel. A very chatty female russian squirrel named Abigail. They talk to each other a lot, and Abby talks to other people a lot too. Sometimes, she even answers in lieu of Babe. They’re both very blunt and very out there, no hiding with Babe and Abby. It used to get them into a lot of trouble with the nuns at school, who believed that daemons are only meant to be seen and not heard. A+ Catholic repression.

George’s daemon was a little tricky to me. I know his daemon is female and that her name is Thalia. I also know that she can fly. My first thought was: Parrot, either a hyacinth macaw or a white cockatoo. But, I also really like the idea of George having a Butterfly daemon. Particularly one that looks like a leaf when her wings are folded up but is brilliantly jewel toned when she opens them. In the end, I opted for George entering the army, having not settled just yet, and he and Thalia are this kind of double-act, where she shifts into whatever form is necessary for the punchline of the joke. She only settles into a parrot (idk still what kind) after their first jump and all the excitement in Carentan. A gradual thing. They don’t even notice until just before the jump in Holland. When they miss someone, Thalia will mimic that person’s voice. First, it was George’s mama and the voice of her daemon, both speaking in rapid fire portugese. Later on, in Austria, Thalia starts imitating all the friends they’ve lost. Sometimes she’ll sound like Skip. Other times, she’ll sound like Bill. It takes a very long time for her to break this habit. To the point wherein she and George don’t even remember what her real voice sounds like.

Lip’s daemon settled really early and is a female Bonobo named Jane. Has been since he was ten and made man of the house. This, like Skip and Ilaria, was very easy for me to figure out.

Dick’s daemon is a Caracara raptor bird. I’m still figuring out the specifics so she doesn’t have a name yet. Sorry.

As mentioned, Tab has a sheepdog daemon named Marisa who enjoys keeping him and everybody else in check. Have you met a sheepdog? They will literally herd you. It doesn’t matter if you are not a lamb or a sheep. They will nip at your heels until you go where they want to go. That’s Marisa. She’ll nip at Tab’s heels, she’ll nip at everybody else’s heels. If you are going somewhere she does not want you to go she will make sure you know her displeasure.

It is also super funny when she looks Tab in the eye and goes “Down, boy.” It never fails to make Tab go red and make everybody else laugh.

Harry’s daemon-- and don’t get mad at me-- but Harry’s daemon is a Scottish Terrier named Saoirse. He carries her around strapped to his chest during jumps. It’s fucking cute. Don’t say that to their faces though because they will lose all respect for you. It’s a daemon suited more to a teacher than it is to a soldier, that’s for sure.

Bill’s daemon is a pit-bull named Darla. Scary looking one, too, with a very bawdy sense of humor. She will growl at you and pretend to bite and you will be very scared but she only does it as a joke. She’s honestly really cool. When Bill and Babe are walking around together, Abby likes to perch on top of Darla’s head. It’s adorable. Sometimes, when Abby gets too much, Darla carries her around in her mouth. It’s still cute. But only to them, everybody else finds it vaguely horrifying.

I know there’s this taboo of humans not touching other humans’ daemons but it’s kinda difficult in such close-quarters like theirs. It is also heavily implied in the original text of Philip Pullman, that the no-touching thing is a cultural thing. Like, I think in religions that deal a lot in repression like Catholicism or Protestantism, the touching of another’s daemon is a no-no and is only reserved for the most intimate of relations (i.e. marriage). But I feel like religions such as Judaism, Wiccan, Paganism, or even some branches of Folk-Catholicism encourage touch/celebrate that connection between two humans. Neither of these two beliefs are wrong, of course. It’s just a cultural thing and they carry with them both pros and cons.

I bet Lieb grew up very used to his daemon being touched by his mother and father or older siblings. It’s not taboo to him, though he recognizes that it’s taboo to others. He doesn’t get it though, and is constantly rolling his eyes every time somebody gasps when they accidentally touch someone’s daemon.

A lot of the boys just kinda ignore the touching daemons thing until they get used to it.

I’m not sure what Lieb’s daemon is or what her name is, too. I know she’s a social kind of daemon-- not solitary like a big cat or a reptile (like snakes). I thought maybe a wolf, but a wolf daemon is too... large and there are a lot of connotations attached to it. I think Lieb’s daemon is something medium-sized and unassuming. Not a dog. Not a domestic cat either. A part of me thinks flightless bird, but no. Not that either. Give me time. I’ll figure her out. As of now, I’m thinking either a marsupial or a canidae/fox but not quite. She’s a mammal, that much I know. Just don’t know what kind.

Grant’s daemon is a male domestic cat named Saladin. He’s either an Abyssinian or a Bengal. Either way, he’s really cool. Like super cool. They’re both super duper cool.

And... that’s kinda it. That’s all I have for now. I’m really sorry it got so long, anon. I get really excited when talking about daemons. It’s character study but with animals! Thank you for giving me this opportunity to ramble. This is where I leave you.

#band of brothers #dæmon au #bob aus #tp aus #the pacific #but only eugene and snaf #ask #bob hcs #tp hcs

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

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Is It Really THAT Bad?

How many fucking times must I talk about this movie?

I feel like this movie doesn’t need an introduction. Everyone knows this film. Its reputation precedes it. It didn’t bomb and it’s not generally considered one of the worst films ever made (at least on the level of films like Robot Monster or The Cat in the Hat), but this movie is easily one of the most divisive films ever made. This film has generated enough arguments that, if we harnessed the energy of all the flame wars it has caused, we could probably power the entire world until the heat death of the universe.

With the impending release of Zach Snyder’s bloated redo of Justice League, I’ve decided to go back and ask myself of this film here… is it really that bad?

THE GOOD

Here comes the most uncontroversial opinion: the action scenes in this movie rock (or at least two of them do). The standouts are the titular showdown, which almost makes sitting through the rest of the movie worth it, and the epic warehouse fight Batman gets into, which is like something straight out of the Arkham games. It’s so good. And aside from that, a lot of the cinematography in the film is good. The film knows how to look good, though unfortunately it does end up being a lot of style with little substance.

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On the subject of Batman, I think Ben Affleck is a great and inspired choice. I certainly think he’s worthy of standing alongside Batmans like Clooney and Keaton, easily embodying both the Dark Knight and Billionaire Playboy aspects fairly well, though the writing does not always handle him quite as well as it should (we’ll get to that soon enough). Henry Cavill, while still a rather dour Superman, is as good as ever as Superman, and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was a great choice here, especially since she didn’t have control so that she could insert anti-Arab racism, like some DCEU movies.

Perhaps one of the movies most impressive feats is how, in an uncharacteristic moment of brevity, it manages to condense the backstory of Batman into the prologue, getting it out of the way and not making us sit through yet another Batman origin film. This is literally the only thing the movie has over the MCU; where that franchise just has the character Spider-Man inexplicably in existence without even a hint of his origins, they just get Batman’s tragic backstory out of the way so we can see him beating the crap out of people. If more superhero movies want to take this route and just condense the backstory into an opening montage like this, I’d be down for it.

THE BAD

I really could just say “most of the movie” but that’s such a cop out. Let’s actually look at the problems. Let’s work our way up through the things from least problematic to most, shall we?

The best place to start is what Zach Snyder did to Jimmy Olsen.

Jimmy Olsen is made into a CIA spook who is brutally killed early on, and yes, that was Jimmy Olsen. Snyder put him in to shock audiences with his senseless murder, and also because he felt the character had no place in his series. Does making Watchmen just turn people into joyless husks who like to horribly bastardize iconic characters? Jimmy Olsen is ultimately a small microcosm of the film, but he is the sum total of everything wring with the early DCEU. He is bleak, soulless, and shows a critical lack of understanding about the comics and why people enjoy them.

Now let’s move on to the more exciting problem to discuss: the villains. I don’t even think it’s worth wasting much time discussing what’s wrong with KGBeast. While it is kind of interesting they’d think to use the guy at all, the fact he never dons the costume and dies by the end of the film is unfathomably lame for a character named KGBeast.

Now, onto the main antagonist, and the most infamous part of the movie: Lex Luthor.

Lex Luthor is horribly, horribly miscast. Jesse Eisenberg is a great actor for sure, and he’s effective in movies like Now You See Me, The Social Network, and the Zombieland films. But here he is being asked to play one of the most diabolical cunning geniuses in comic book history, and rather than play him as such, he plays him like a cartoonish twit. This Lex is utterly unrecognizable as Superman’s greatest foe. Does anyone think Lex Luthor would send a jar of piss to someone as a joke before he blows them up? That’s more something the Joker would do on an off day. Lex is not cunning, not intimidating, and not diabolical in the slightest, and yet there are moments where Eisenberg’s acting chops shine through and Lex, for a moment, is almost engaging. Luthor really suffers the way Doctor Doom tends to in film adaptations: the filmmaker clearly doesn’t get why people like the villain, and decide to do some weird, unique take that will only cause to alienate fans.

But perhaps the worst of them all is Doomsday. Doomsday has exactly one claim to fame, and that’s killing Superman, so as soon as he shows up if you have even a passing awareness of the character you know how the movie is going to end, which robs the film of tension for its last battle. The fact he also appears with little buildup and doesn’t have any characterization doesn’t help; Doomsday is just the Big Gray CGI Blob that superhero movies try and pass off as a final boss for the heroes to fight. This has worked precisely once, in Iron Man. The Incredible Hulk and Venom did not make it work, and this film is nowhere close to being in the same ballpark as Venom.

By and far the biggest problem, though, is the movie’s incredible length and its very existence in the franchise at this point in time. This is an epic superhero crossover in which two of the biggest comic book characters of all time fight and then team up… And it is the second movie in a franchise. While they do a good job of establishing Batman rather quickly, Wonder Woman comes out of nowhere. And then at the end, Superman ‘dies.’ We have had one single movie prior to this to make a connection to the guy, and yet here he is getting a temporary comic book death with no buildup whatsoever that we know is going to be reversed sooner than later because the movie telegraphs this to us.

Imagine if, instead of building up the character over the course of a decade and putting him in all sorts of different stories, the MCU went right from Iron Man to Endgame. You go from a simpler, character-driven piece to a massive crossover where a hero dies right away, and it doesn’t give anyone time to care. Tony Stark had multiple films worth of characterization under his belt before they threw him in a crossover, let alone killed him, but Snyder expects you to give a damn about a Superman who just started his career in the previous movie of a franchise.

And the ass-numbing length of the movie is no justification. Even before the director’s cut came out this film was a slog, and the director’s cut really does nothing to earn its existence. All it does is add more runtime to an already tedious and bloated film, leading to the same exact ending and fixing none of the overarching narrative problems of the thing. The problem with any director’s cut is that ultimately the movie is still going to be Dawn of Justice, it’s still going to lead to extremely rushed character decisions, and it’s still going to be a mess. You’d have to redo half of the film to make this into a worthwhile and coherent narrative that’s actually worthy of being an entry in a superhero franchise.

And to top it all off, the movie spends far too much time foreshadowing for its own good. People criticized The Mummy for shoehorning in way too many shared universe elements right off the bat, and if that movie was bad for it, so is this one. The cameos from all the members of the Justice League, while striking, could be excised from the plot with little to no impact, and the Knightmare sequence is just excessive and weird.

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Is It Really THAT Bad?

The answer to this question has never been harder.

On the one hand, this film does have some merit. There is some good casting choices, good cinematography, good action… But then, on the other hand, the film is overly long, pretentious, has poor writing and dialogue, mishandles everyone aside from Superman, and is just incredibly unpleasant.

This film is in many ways the exact problem Christopher Nolan created with his Dark Knight trilogy. Nolan, by grounding the fanciful characters of comic books into a realistic setting, created a climate in which someone could suck any sort of joy or meaning out of comics. The success of his films meant that people would see dark, gritty realism as preferable to joyous, colorful escapism, and the negative effects of his films, however good you find them, are still felt today even as filmmakers are finally shaking off the grit. Dawn of Justice is the zenith of Nolan’s style of superhero film. There is nothing fun, joyful, or engaging to be found here; it is simply the characters you know and love forced into dark, miserable scenarios that ends in death and misery. Where’s the fun? Where’s the color? Where’s the wonder, the excitement, where is any of it? This film paints a bleak and miserable and hopeless picture of a world of superheroes. It really makes me think of this rather famous comic panel:

I absolutely hate this movie, but not because I think it’s bad. I hate it because it has enough good ideas where it should be the best thing ever, but it really isn’t. It’s a miserable slog of a film that does nothing to justify or earn its massive runtime whatsoever. It really does belong somewhere between 5 and 6 on IMDB, because I can almost see why people like it, but it just isn’t even remotely close to being how good its fan say it is. This is not a good superhero movie, and this is not how we should want superhero movies to be. There is a market for serious superhero fare of course, and there’s no reason that these films can’t engage with mature themes or anything, don’t get me wrong. But this is absolutely not the way to do it.

#Is it really that bad #IIRTB #Review #movie review #Batman v Superman #Dawn of Justice #Zach Snyder #Batman #Superman #DCEU

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thanksjro · 4 years

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Dark Cybertron Chapter 1: Welcome to Comic Event Hell

You know what readers love? When the stories they’ve gotten invested in over the course of a couple years get interrupted for some pseudo-crossover bullshit.

And you know what writers love? When the story they’ve been crafting over the course of a couple years get interrupted for some pseudo-crossover bullshit.

Did I say love?

Because I didn’t mean it.

“Dark Cybertron” was penned by John Barber and James Roberts, with collaboration with comic writer and artist Phil Jimenez, and was published from early November, 2013 to late March, 2014. Atilio Rojo, James Raiz, and Livio Ramondelli did the art, each responsible for scenes in specific locations, with Robert Gill filling in as needed. Alex Milne, Andrew Griffith, and Brendan Cahill would also contribute pencils to the first issue and the back half of the series. It was a celebration of the 30th anniversary of the franchise, and the second birthday of Phase Two... which went on for over four months, but never mind that!

Both "Dark Cybertron” and its preliminary materials were made to go alongside the Transformers: Generations toy-line, each issue being included as a toy pack-in with whatever character was being featured… or, at least, that was the plan. Sometimes it didn’t work out. Regardless, this storyline was created to sell toys directly, as opposed to the MTMTE/RID series being made to sell toys more through the power of suggestion. It’s a small distinction, but important, because it will help explain any lack of soul one may perceive while they read “Dark Cybertron”.

“But Hannz!” you cry out, reaching to grab me by the throat and shake me like a rag doll, because to you I’m merely a faceless voice on the internet. “Surely by calling this specific storyline soulless, you’re completely ignoring the very nature of this franchise that you’re almost uncomfortably invested in!”

To which I’ll say this: look, I’m pretty realistic about where my giant space robots came from; Transformers as a franchise would not exist the way it does without Ronald Reagan introducing the Free Market to literal children and fucking up how we interact with media for the rest of time. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism, and that rings especially true when I’ve got a Spinister on my bookshelf staring me down as I write this, that was likely made out of plastics which either involved blood oil or unethical labor practices, if not both.

However!

The choices of a company to have their comic license holders to cook up an entire plot that derails what they’ve already got planned out for toy tie-in comics is a completely different animal than what IDW had had going on up to this point. Phase Two had been about exploring different ideas that hadn’t been able to be explored during the war, and seeing what happens when you take away a third of the logline for Transformers G1 as a whole. Being a part of a brand of toys was almost inconsequential to how the stories were being told; even the Spotlights, which were also toy tie-in comics, had plenty of charm to them, if only because there weren’t quite as many constraints placed on the writers, and they were stand-alone issues.

Of course, being tie-in comics isn’t the only reason that “Dark Cybertron” is a bit of a slog, considering everything IDW itself was trying to get done within this storyline, but we’ll cover the publishing company’s/Simon Furman’s/Transformers’ tumultuous relationship with the concept of gender identity and expression later on, when it becomes relevant to the story proper. This point also ties into the interesting origin of Windblade, who we’ll meet in a few issues, and what happens when you let your fanbase have a taste of power and forget that people might like to see themselves represented in the media they consume.

“Dark Cybertron” is what ended up making me stop reading MTMTE the first time I tried it in 2015. A big part of it was because it forced the reader to need so much information from RID and even events prior to Phase Two, it wasn’t very fun to try to parse what was going on, on top of the writing beginning to flag because of obvious constraints to what Barber and Roberts could actually do, both within their deadlines and the rules put in place by their higher ups for the event.

“Dark Cybertron” is the result of the sort of executive meddling that kills reader enjoyment by requiring writers to cram their two worlds together as quickly as possible, without the option to go for nuance because there simply isn’t time. The reason we have four separate artists for the front half of this story is because Milne and Griffith didn’t have time to draw both their current workload and “Dark Cybertron” at the same time... but sales probably went up due to the nature of how the story was published, so I’m sure they didn’t really see a problem with it.

That’s a general “they”, not a Milne and Griffith “they”.

In short, we’ve got license contract obligations, fan-poll obligations, and gender stuff fighting for space within the next 12 issues, which will be published in the span of roughly four months. Things are probably going to be a little bloated and sloppy.

Regardless of any of these points, this is what we’ve got. It’s not like it’s all bad- “Dark Cybertron” has the benefit of being written by two people who had been working closely before it had even been conceptualized. Barber was the senior editor for MTMTE, and IDW as a whole until he left in 2016. It also isn’t a proper crossover- y’know, where two completely separate titles get mashed together for a bit. MTMTE and RID exist in the same universe, just have their own things going on, so a decent amount of things still carry over without you needing to have read every single thing in both. The writing, while not quite up to par with pieces that had more creative freedom and breathing room between scenes, is still recognizable as being Barber and Roberts’. Their voices are still here, they’re just strained under the weight of everything that has to be said inside of 12 issues.

With all THAT out of the way, let’s dive in to Dark Dawn: Dark Cybertron Chapter 1.

We get a quick rundown of the most basic information you’ll need for this entire story to make sense, as we reintroduce the fact that Shockwave is an ecoterrorist with more agendas than a daily planner factory on meth, and also that he grows magic crystals. I don’t care what he says, the Ores are fucking space-magic. If you don’t want to read through all of RID for everything else, please see Robots in Disguise (2012), #1-22- A Recap, For Reference Purposes. We also get a quick rundown of the Lost Lighters’ deal, as Swerve potentially has a meta-episode.

Be careful what you fucking wish for, bucko.

Our story proper starts with a flashback to the shittiest road trip Cyclonus ever went on, as the Ark 1 finds itself at the edge of a mysterious portal. This is likely why he wasn’t super thrilled when the portal to Luna 1 showed up- portals are probably a touchy subject for him.

Jhiaxus doesn’t know what this portal is- surely this means that science has failed us, and it’s time to call in the religious crowd to try and suss out what’s going on here.

It’s moments like this that make me wonder what exactly happened in the Dead Universe that made Cyclonus’ cheek meat just pack up and leave.

Now, we know that Cyclonus is correct here, because we as readers have more knowledge than the characters at this point, but Jhiaxus tries to write off this theory as hogwash, because he is a man of rationality and science. This is a slight removal from his character in the present, whose most notable traits seem to be a lack of ethics and screaming.

Everyone here seems to be slightly different from their current iterations, actually; Galvatron doesn’t say a word as he steps between Jhiaxus and Cyclonus, only using his body to communicate that the scientist might want to back off. Cyclonus himself is certainly the wordiest we’ve ever seen him to be, droning on through his actual thought process before he comes to a conclusion on what exactly they’ve found. Compare this to the Cyclonus of today, who only deigns to grace everyone with his voice if they outright threaten him, have something he wants, or are Tailgate. If he were to ever pull this verbal meandering on board the Lost Light, people would probably assume he’s having a stroke.

Nova Prime- you remember him, don’t you?- gives not a fuck about the Dead Universe, only what it means for him personally. And what it means for him is more locations to subjugate, because he is cartoonishly evil. His character is the least removed from his present-day iteration out of everyone. He tells the crew they’ll be getting a little closer, only for the portal to do the work for them, by way of dark energy tentacles.

Wow, the pilot for the Ark 1 really is just straight-up named Butt, isn’t he? And what the fuck is that face you’re making, Cyclonus? Are you- oh my god, are you emoting? Oh my god, he’s emoting.

As the Ark 1 is pulled to its doom, Jhiaxus makes a quick phone call to Shockwave to tell him he’s his favorite, and to keep up the good work.

In the present, Shockwave reflects on just how friggin’ long this whole ordeal has taken. Fortunately, Waspinator and the Titan are almost here, and he can hardly wait.

Not, uh, that he’s got emotions or anything. It’s been established that he doesn’t have those anymore. Is impatience an emotion? Does that count?

Shockwave seems like he’d be really frustrating to write for.

Anyway, the Titan shows up, the Ore inside him and the Ore in the underground Crystal City combine, and the Titan starts screaming because everything hurts. Shockwave’s about as thrilled as he can be about the situation, given his lack of emotions.

Above Crystal City, we finally get back to that nonsense about the early sunrise, as someone- maybe Starscream, given the color of the narration box- waxes poetic on the planet of Cybertron, wartorn and wild in its rebirth, ruled by paranoia that has nothing to bounce off of, and so creates its own walls.

Then we get a detailed shot of Rattrap’s mug, and the moment is broken.

Rattrap’s character is a lot of fun in everything he gets tossed into, but you’re a goddamn liar if you think he’s pretty to look at. You are lying to yourself, and I won’t apologize for saying it.

Starscream walks out of his room in his hot new body, feeling fine and ready to take on the world. We’ll check in on him later in the day to see how that positive mentality is working out for him.

So, the sun hasn’t moved, and it’s way too early for the sun to even be up right now. That’s weird. Because I guess he didn’t know how the sun works, Starscream’s only just realized that this is perhaps a problem. He does some computer work and realizes that this is indeed a very bad thing, and asks that Rattrap call the Autobots. Not the ones who fucked off into the wilderness, the other ones. The gay, space ones.

Up in space, Orion Pax and his pals have found themselves in dire straits, the collapsing Gorlam Prime sucking their ship back down as the Death Ore consumes everything.

That’s not how engines work! And I think it really says something about the “Prelude” issues that I completely forgot why Wheelie was down an arm for a solid five seconds.

It turns out that Orion was the narrator the entire time, which I should have known- since when is the once and future Optimus Prime not the primary voice in any media he appears in?

It’s looking rough for the fellas, but luckily we’ve got to get the plot rolling, so the Lost Light VZZZZTs into existence and picks up the Skyroller to place it gently into its belly.

Orion isn’t exactly jazzed about the fact that Rodimus didn’t listen to what he told him, not even bothering to thank the guy for saving his life. I say y’all keep going on your Thunderclash Quest and leave this ungrateful loser behind. No space yachting for you, Orion.

The rest of the Pax Posse enter the Lost Light proper, and Hardhead reveals that he nearly joined the Quest, before he saw who all would be coming with, while Garnak has a tearful reunion with Rodimus. The fact that he’s calling him Sir- which I don’t recall him doing in Transformers (2009), at least not in a way that seems reminiscent of an unfortunate Antebellum Period Romance- feels rather weird, but I’m glad someone’s fucking happy to see Rodimus at least. Ultra Magnus asks Orion if he’ll be assuming command of the vessel, as Rodimus tries not to look horrified by the thought alone, but fortunately Orion’s not going to pull his “I’m Optimus Prime and I Can Do What I Want” Card just yet.

Smash cut to the bridge, as Rodimus tries to make himself sound competent, when Starscream calls. Orion doesn’t like that Starscream has their number, Perceptor almost reveals the fact that this ship technically doesn’t belong to a faction, likely due to being purchased after the war, and Cyclonus gets brought in for his professional opinion.

As it turns out, that early sunrise isn’t a sunrise at all, but a portal to the Dead Universe. This is a problem, because the Dead Universe really sucks, and you don’t want to go there, especially if you enjoy being alive. Orion seems more concerned about the fact that Starscream is ruling the planet, and Bumblebee is nowhere to be found.

Speaking of Bumblebee, he and all his camp buddies are psyching themselves up for a confrontation.

Swoop, please, this is hardly the time for crudeness.

The Dinobots, sick of Bumblebee’s dithering about, decide they’re going to fight the fucking sun and gear up. Prowl, though generally disliking their brand of problem-solving, does share his begrudging respect of their can-do attitude.

Their can-do attitude over fighting the fucking sun.

Then an earthquake happens and the ground rips open to reveal that Titan that Waspinator showed up with.

Shockwave takes over the narration at this point, and we get artsy, as we see events that haven’t transpired yet over musings on the nature of... time? Maybe? It would be in line with Roberts’ go-to topics, but honestly the whole thing’s kind of vague so I couldn’t give you a solid answer. Shockwave gets awfully introspective for a guy who shouldn’t care, I know that much. The point is, he is inevitable and is super good at logic and science.

Also, Nova Prime and Galvatron are back, which is cool, I guess. Not sure where Galvatron had gotten to exactly after the events of “Chaos”, but he’s back now, so it doesn’t matter too terribly much. Shockwave serves them, which we’ll probably get an explanation for at some point.

God, you can practically taste the desperation to pin all these plot points together before the entire thing implodes on itself.

#transformers #jro #dark cybertron #issue 1 #maccadam #Hannzreads #overthinking about robots #incoming analysis #text post #long post #comic script writing

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sepublic · 4 years

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Sorry about the double ask so here's a fun idea, Emperor Belos wrote The Good Witch Azura books. Like he wrote them in his younger years before becoming a parasitic tyrant. - Pixel Anon

That seems like it’d be the perfect opportunity to segue into a lesson about Death of the Author, which- Given Sense and Insensitivity, and how this show already discusses how fiction affects reality and connects with it… Would be VERY refreshing to see, especially as a moral that I don’t really see other kids’ shows exploring! I do recall OK KO bringing it up with the Hero Cards not representing Kappas, but the more the merrier. It’d also be fitting to discuss Death of the Author, and separating a work from a terrible creator- Given the show’s frequent references to Harry Potter, which has a rather infamous author…

For neurodivergent kids who really get into hyperfixations and fandoms, which Luz and Amity basically are- It’d be fascinating to see them navigate this kind of twisted revelation! And it’d also force them to really re-examine The Good Witch Azura, because sometimes a work can’tbe separated from the harmful ideas of its creator, especially if it was made to transmit them… If Azura ever talks about dealing with ‘savages’, that’d be VERY sus and make matters a lot more complex. But then again, Azura also reconciles with Hecate, so it could be a matter of recognizing a work’s more problematic areas and criticizing them, while still enjoying it.

And, this makes sense, as The Owl House really does convey that experience of engaging with media and fiction, and how it relates to real life… And how media and fiction CAN mean a lot to people, it’s perfectly valid for one’s hyperfixations to mean the world to them! It’s treated as objectively terrible for Luz to throw away her Azura book, and bar a few social misunderstandings, the Azura books have otherwise brought nothing but happiness for her and Amity, and even functioned as something for them to bond over!

It’s perfectly okay for fiction to mean a lot to Luz, and she’s not being childish for wanting to hold on, to keep enjoying it- So it’d be an interesting discussion when Belos’ authorship is thrown into the mix, amidst potential problematic bits here or there. Then again, Luz is an ND-coded kid who continues to find solace in these stories, which would suggest that there isn’t anything there that would bother her- At least, nothing she’d have really noticed until someone pointed it out to her.

Then there’s the appropriateness, of Belos’ own fantasy being what could’ve led to Luz being deluded in her own right, projecting fantasies and dreams onto reality, wanting to be a chosen one… It’d be an extension of the kind of harmful delusions and ideas he puts into others, tying it back all the way of Luz herself, prior to arriving on the Boiling Isles! It’d give us insight to Belos as someone who really gets people to believe in the idea of being special, of being chosen, specifically for the Emperor’s Coven… And how this could relate to HIS character, if he himself is also a victim of these kinds of issues. If Belos is Luz, in that she never learned to differentiate fantasy from reality, and felt entitled towards bringing her stories to life.

Perhaps Belos isn’t REALLY chosen by the Titan, he just likes to think of himself as a Chosen One- Or he was, but others can also quality for this honor, which is something that aggravates Belos because it alludes to him not being more special than others. Because to Belos, it’s not enough to be unique and valid in your own way; You must be actively better than others, and the creation of the Emperor’s Coven above all reflects this. The belief that magic is a privilege, a luxury, something you must actively earn or be more worthy of than others for…

It’s also an interesting contrast, as if Belos has also been influenced by his works, or his works are a reflection of that- Then it’d set him apart from Luz as someone who actively deludes himself. As someone who is voluntarily blind, and willfully ignorant- Just like Lilith, who was inspired by Belos and looked to him as a role model when she was younger. Even before becoming a parasitic tyrant, Belos was a dark reflection of Luz, subjecting others to fantasies and delusions… Maybe not initially maliciously nor willingly, maybe it was just him having fun like any author. But then this innocuous action became very dark in retrospect, as Belos and his ‘hobbies’ worsened and took on a more harmful role for the people of the Boiling Isles.

I suppose it’s worth noting that Belos’ imagery invokes a lot of white, which is also seen with Azura’s predominantly white-and-purple robes… While Belos is white-and-gold. If Belos is a dark deconstruction of Luz’s assumption of a Chosen One narrative and fantasies, then maybe he’s also a deconstruction of Azura herself; And this of course suggests that he actively emulated his own creation. He’s artistic and a writer like Luz is, but it seems Belos got TOO convinced by how good he was, and couldn’t take constructive criticism- Which could be like King as an author in Sense and Insensitivity, up until he realizes that Luz’s input helped make him so great!

Luz and Amity can still engage in fantasy and fiction, the show always lets them find joy in this… It’s just a matter of finding the distinction between the two and recognizing it. Fully indulging into fantasy is what could’ve led Luz to accepting Adegast’s illusions… But entirely rejecting is is the path that is the Reality Camp, which would’ve sucked the fun and joy out of Luz and turned her into a hollow, soulless imitation of herself. It’s okay to find comfort and media and even be inspired by it, to even take lessons from it; And while you should always prioritize listening to real life when it says otherwise, I think it’s worth observing that Luz’s quest to be a good person like Azura… Well, influences her to be kind!

And it’s this desire to emulate Azura that influences Luz to learn magic, which creates yet another hyperfixation that brings the girl joy, and leads to her connecting with Eda and everyone else in the Boiling Isles in the first place by staying there! Perhaps Belos will contrast with Luz in that while he recognized media’s ability to make him feel happier, he ultimately used it as a crutch, a substitute for actual meaningful interaction and connection with other people- Thus creating the monster we see today. There could be the idea of finding role models, people you want to emulate- But also recognizing their flaws, where to criticize them, and not be like them. That could tie into how Eda is a teacher to Luz, but isn’t always right and excels by taking Luz’s feedback into consideration, instead of assuming she always knows better and will never be wrong.

All in all, this is a fascinating idea Pixel Anon! Even if Belos has no literal connection to the Azura books, I am a big fan of the idea of him being a dark reflection to Luz… A Luz as we see her start out in the series, only to be a Luz who never learns the lessons we see her go through. Belos wanted to be a hero, a main character; But he never went through the actual arc and character development of one, and instead ended up as the static villain, the main antagonist who causes problems for actualheroes. If some characters become what they despise most by trying to avoid that, then perhaps Belos is someone who avoids becoming what he wanted to be, in his attempts to be like that.

Whether or not media has played a role in Belos’ life has yet to be seen, but there is the idea of him having lived out a traditional ‘fantasy’ without realizing it as such, because to him this IS his reality- So it’s ironic then that Belos deludes himself while Luz doesn’t. Maybe it’s because of this, because Luz has that self-awareness to consider the divide between her fantasies and what reality actually is; Because she has an actual frame of reference for what fantasy and fiction is. Suddenly I’m reminded of that joke in Lost in Language, when Gary sees “Fiction-Fiction” because the Non part, the reminder of reality, was erased; And he has an existential crisis, wondering if any of his life was real…

Imagine this being foreshadowing to BELOS, of all people, having an epiphany- Realizing that so much of his ‘reality’ was just his own fiction, that he questions what things were real and what things never were. Belos realizing he forgot to consider reality, and now he’s questioning everything he knows, if his arcane knowledge is all for naught if he can’t even distinguish facts from fantasy… etc. What is real and objective- What if all of his ‘Non-Fiction’ was simply just Fiction, and Luz the troublemaker must reveal this to Belos? I’m just imagining Luz very awkwardly cringing and navigating around Belos’ breakdown, but also sort of relating to his dilemma and helping him recover; At least for the sake of everyone else, because a reformed Belos makes life easier than a dead one.

Plus, Luz is very compassionate in that sort of way… And while Belos’ radiance has blinded him for so long; Now, it’s Luz’s less harsh Light, which helps open his eyes and allow Belos to properly see the world around him. Eyes DO seem to be a major motif in the Boiling Isles, and with Belos, whose eyes need to be fixed by some palisman bile… If Belos’ light has blinded all, himself the first victim; Then Luz’s more Night-time, Star-oriented Light can bring a sunset to Belos’ shining era, for now the sun sets on his empire after all these years. And with the lights dimmed, Belos can appreciate the darkness around him as a contrast, and truly recognize things for what they are… And Luz can metaphorically open his eyes and mind.

If Luz illuminates others to the truth of their situation and what they’re doing- Then maybe her final obstacle can be Belos… Alongside her mother Camila, when Luz reunites with her and reveals just how much happier she’s been in the Boiling Isles, instead of the Reality Camp that was actually going to hurt her. THAT would be an unusual parallel, Belos and Camila, as two significant adults in Luz’s life… Potentially ones who taught Luz everything she knew prior to Eda, with Camila providing social interactions to the girl, while Belos provides lessons through his Azura fiction and media. If Azura and Camila were all Luz knew and learned from, it’d be interesting for her to teach THEM something herself- Again, a continuation of that theme of the teacher having a lot to learn from the student, and not being so infallible and all-knowing themselves. Even a teacher like Eda can still enjoy the wide-eyed opportunity and curiosity to learn as a student, once more…

#the owl house #owl house #the owl house belos #emperor belos #the owl house luz #luz noceda #the good witch azura #speculation #ask

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mirkwoodshewolf · 4 years

Text

The Prankster Queen is dethroned; SPN & Lucifer cast x teen reader

*Author’s note*

Well this was a LOOOOOONG time request from my Wattpad account but I finally got some motivation to write and finish this fic. Now I talked with the requestor about this and some changes were made, originally this was gonna involve Criminal minds cast but I had barely watched the show at the time so I talked with them and they agreed to have this be a SPN X LUCIFER cast crossover. So I hope you all enjoy this little fic and until the next update.

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things

@waddles03

@psychosupernatural

@ixchel-9275

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels

@platawnic

__________________________________________________________

“Okay guys; here we are back at the Supernatural set ready to start filming the 2nd half of season 14. Before I get into the special prank on Alex day I want to first send a very special thanks to the Lucifans for the #SaveLucifer and thank Netflix for renewing a season 4 and 5 of Lucifer. Yes I am a fan of that show as well. I mean I’ve got to my dad plays the famed Devil himself. No, no, no, no, no I’m joking. I watch the show because I really love what they did with it. The writing is phenomenal and the cast is super friendly. They’re like my second family next these guys here at Supernatural.”

I spoke through my Youtube channel streaming live. I could already see comments popping up along my livestream. Comments like ‘YASS LUCIFERXSPN SUPPORT’ or Winchester sister stans Lucifer.

“Yes I do thank you. Now for the moment you’ve all waited for. I’ve got the plastic wrap, the super glue, feathers, and fan. And of course the star of this prank on Alex, my baby boy Shadow.” I then presented my black German Shepherd who was lying on Alex’s trailer couch. “You ready to prank Alex boy?” he tilted his head to the side. “You ready to prank him?” he let out a bark and I cooed. “Good boy!” I flipped my camera back around and said. “Now Jared kindly set up the camera just a bit ago so I will transition to that in just a little while. For now I’m going to set up the door so please enjoy this fast forward montage of me getting the prank set up.”

I spread the super glue all around the plastic wrapping and tapped it across Alex’s trailer door so that when he would run right into it, he would get trapped with the plastic wrapping before I would attack with the pillow filled with feathers.

“Okay everything’s all set up. Now for the final touch, c’mon boy up on the bed.” He got off the couch and into Alex’s bed and just lay there at the foot of it. “Good boy.” I opened the trailer door and waited for Alex to come around. Once I saw him walking alongside Misha, I cried out. “ALEX! ALEX! SHADOW’S TAKING A SHIT ON YOUR BED!!”

“What!?”

“I’m not kidding I was walking him and he just ran in here and literally shit on your bed! Bad dog!”

“Shadow! Shadow! Damnit Shadow!” Alex then ran up and just like I hopped, he slammed right into the plastic wrap and fell right to the ground. I then pelted him with the pillow till his entire face was covered with feathers.

“BOOM SUCKA!!! That’ll teach you to eat my big cookie.” I told him.

“Okay maybe I deserved that.”

“Wow (y/n), all this for a cookie?” Misha said as he helped Alex back up on his feet.

“Misha you don’t understand. Those cookies were my mum’s special recipe. Plus she makes them so big that you can eat it in the space of a week. I was saving the last bit of it and then this guy decides it’s a good idea to eat the last of it.” I said pointing to Alex.

“You know….one of these days. We’re gonna get you back. Everyone that you’ve pranked, we’re gonna get you.” Alex spoke as he coughed out trying to get the feathers out of his mouth.

“The day that happens is the day J2(I/l) turns on each other. And the boys and I have been doing this for a long, long time.” I sassed as I snapped my finger and Shadow hopped off Alex’s bed and we left the trailer.

Little bit about myself; the names (Y/n) Ellis, the last name sound familiar? Yep you thought right. Tom Ellis aka Lucifer Morningstar is my father. He and I have been in the acting business together for a good amount of years. In fact he’s helped me when it came to running lines or dealing with the pressures of the acting life, especially since I started off as a child actor at the age of 5.

I had a few small roles, but when I was just 9 years old a role on a little show called Supernatural came knocking at my door. As a young British girl I was worried that I wouldn’t get it because this was an American tv show and I had to speak with an American accent. But thanks to a good dialect coach, and 2 test screenings with the boys to see if we were a fit, I got to play the role of Sarah Winchester, the younger half-sister of Sam and Dean who was cursed with witch powers.

But instead of killing her, Sam and Dean actually take her in and she uses her magic for good instead of evil. For years the Supernatural cast didn’t just become an ordinary job, it was like being home, we became a family. Jared and Jensen were like the big brothers I never had (even though they were around my dad’s age).

When things got too tough around set, J2 always found a way to make me smile and laugh. And as the years passed, Misha came on board followed by the 2 Marks, Ruth, Brianna and Kim, Osric, Rob and Richard, and now finally Alexander Calvert. The Supernatural family is a tight bond and we all send out a powerful message that Family don’t end in blood, and to Always Keep Fighting when things got bad.

Then when season 11 of my show was being filmed, my dad had gotten the role of Lucifer Morningstar in Fox’s new tv series “Lucifer” which was basically the story of the devil taking a vacation from Hell and he ends up working with the LAPD alongside a clever detective named Chloe Decker.

When Lucifer exploded every time I went to conventions, fans always ask me questions about potential crossovers or what I thought of the show. And truthfully I loved it. In fact whenever I would wrap on my time on a season, I took the hour and 45 minute drive where they filmed Lucifer and spend time with my dad and the Lucifer cast.

Lauren, Aimee and Lesley became my partners in crime when it came to the subtle pranks on the Luci cast or even my dad. Aimee and I are always making Instagram videos of each other acting like complete nutjobs, she’s like the older sister I’ve always wanted (since I am the eldest of my three sisters).

But that’s my life, and if you were to ask me if I could trade it away for anything else, I would tell you hell no (no pun intended).

After getting Shadow back into my trailer, I decided to see if my dad was willing to talk. I grabbed my I-Pad and went over to Facetime and clicked my dad’s name (of course I added the devil emoji beside his name). It rang about five times before I finally got an answer.

“There’s my little She-devil.” He answered with a smirk.

“Hey dad.” I said with a smile.

“Aimee saw your prank on that Alex chap.”

“She like it?”

“Mini Ellis you are a she-devil genius!” Aimee soon came into the frame. “You got to show me how that brilliant mind of yours works.”

“Guess I learned from two of the very best. I know exactly how to push buttons but not go overly extreme that it hurts someone’s soul. I’m not completely soulless like Jared is when it comes to pranks.”

“I still can’t believe he actually cut one of his credit cards. That’s super low.” She said.

“I know. I’ve been trying to get him to ease back and not go quite extreme. So far he hasn’t done it knock on wood.”

“Anyways you two, what brings on this call my dove?” my dad asked.

“Just wanted to call and see how you were doing. How’s season 4 coming along?”

“Great. Everything is great. Thanks to the Lucifans, and the Supernatural family.” My dad said.

“No sweat. You’re my dad. I’m still pissed that FOX could just cancel your show like that. And the way they would’ve ended it. God that’s literally the worst cliffhanger ever!”

“Tell me about it.” Aimee groaned.

“But it’s all fixed now. Netflix will take good care of us now. Plus we don’t have as much restrictions as FOX gave us.” My dad teased. I then heard a knock at my trailer door which made Shadow raise his head up from his bed and his attention turned toward the door.

“Hang on dad, who is it?!”

“It’s Jared! C’mon kiddo they need us on set now.”

“Alright I’ll be there in a minute.” I turned back to my dad and Aimee and my dad said to me.

“Go on, we’ll catch up later.”

“Alright dad. Give my love to the rest of the cast.”

“You already have my love mini Ellis.” Aimee said.

“Love you Aims!”

“Alright darling love you. Stay safe and have fun filming your next season.” The two of them blew me a kiss goodbye and I waved bye to them and the Facetime shut off. I put my phone aside and quickly refilled Shadow’s water bowl before I took off and raced towards the set.

Although unbeknownst to both Jared and Jensen something was waiting for them. As I walked in on the set I sat down at the spot where my character Sarah was to sit for this upcoming scene.

“Okay guys on cue marks. Cue lighting and roll sound.” I got into the mindset of Sarah and took the prop book in my hands as our director called out, “Okay cue Jensen and Jared. And…..action.” it was then Jensen came down the staircase while Jared came out from the back corridor.

“Hey, so any word from Jodie?” Jensen asked as Dean to Jared.

“No not yet. Hey Sar, any luck with the research?” Jared asked me as Sam.

“Not a damn thing. God even for a witch like me I still can’t figure out the spell to get us to that other place. I’m sorry guys I may be strong, but I’m not Rowena strong.”

“No, no it’s alright. It’s okay. We’ll……find another way.” Then Jared and Jensen took their seats before suddenly jolting upwards and letting out girlish screams of shock and pain.

“CUT!!!” our director called out.

“The hell was that!?!” Jensen proclaimed.

“Oh thank god I thought it was just me.” Jared sighed with relief. I kept my poker face up as I said to them.

“What happened just now?”

“Something shocked us. I don’t know what but whatever it was, it should never have shocked me back there. My butt does not deserve that kind of treatment!” he looked around the cushioned seat until he found some sort of electronic shock pad. It was slightly smaller than the cushioned pad and as soon as Jensen took hold of it and pressed a certain button, it caused another shock to run through his arm as he swore out loud and shake his arm.

“Uhh Jensen why would you do that?” I asked him.

“I don’t know I needed to see if it was real or not don’t judge me!”

“How the hell did these even get here?” asked Jared.

“No idea.” Jensen said. I covered my smile as I tried to act inconspicuous but that’s when the two of them looked at me. “You did this?”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I said as I stood up and strutted out of the room sassily to run into Misha and I told him. “Your revenge plot has been successfully played out.”

“I knew I could count on you (n/n). Thanks.”

“No problem, but just know Misha all things come at a price with me. Pranking the kings don’t come without consequence.”

“I know, I know. But still I thank you for doing this for me. That’ll teach Jared to put old cheese in my pillow.” I patted his arm before leaving him to reset the scene again.

Weeks passed and filming continued on up until I was finally done with my scenes which meant that I was now allowed to travel on up to the Lucifer set and pop in and say hello. After bidding everyone goodbye until July, I got into the car and my driver Tommy drove me on up towards the studio where my dad and the rest of the Lucifer family were filming.

After finally arriving on the set, I saw Lauren and Aimee out and about with a Starbucks cup in their hands. As soon as they saw my car, they immediately waved. I rolled down my window and said.

“What up my Luci sistas!”

“Ahhh mini-Ellis!” Aimee proclaimed. Once the car stopped, I stepped out and I raced towards her and she met me in the middle as the two of us embraced each other tightly, rocking aggressively from side to side. “Where’s big Shadow? You usually bring him with you whenever you’re done with shooting.”

“Well for some reason Misha wanted to keep him around set. Guess he must’ve needed the fluffy protection from Jared and Jensen after the prank I pulled on them a few weeks back.”

“What’d you do to them?” asked Lauren.

“Just put a shock pad cushion underneath their chairs. Misha told me to do it to get back at Jared for putting old cheese in his pillow.”

“Wow those guys are relentless huh?” said Aimee.

“Yep. But enough of that now, let’s get going. I wanna watch you guys film some stuff.”

“Alright! C’mon kiddo let’s go.” Lauren wrapped her arm around me before playfully giving me a noogie while guiding me onwards to the set.

I greeted my Lucifer family like D.B, Kevin, Lesley-Ann, Rachael, and of course young Scarlett (ever since the show I officially adopted her as my younger sister).

“So, have you guys seen my dad anywhere?” I asked.

“Last we saw him he was leaving his trailer for costume and makeup.” Aimee said.

“Perfect.”

“What have you got in mind she-devil?” asked Lauren with a grin.

“Ohhh not much.” I grinned as I walked towards the costume and makeup trailers.

Once I got there, I had spotted my dad just getting out from the costume trailer in the full Lucifer suit. I grinned mischievously and slowly stalked towards him. This was something that I used to always do to him when I was a little girl, it’s been awhile but I hope I still got it. Like a tigress on the prowl I stalked behind my dad silent and carefully.

Whenever he turned around, I would hide behind anything I could whether it was the side of a trailer/tent, or even one of the many gold carts/motorbikes. Then when he would resume his walk, I trailed behind him once again. Closer and closer I got till finally I was within strike range.

The mighty huntress has cornered her prey.

I then trotted forward before leaping up but I was foiled when my dad turned around and managed to catch me and spin me around for a moment in his arms.

“Thought you’d sneak up on my again huh my little tigress? After all these years I finally caught you red handed.”

“Took you over 20 years but no time like the present eh?” my dad smirked down at me, the smirk that I had inherited from him, and said as he booped my nose.

“I just know when my daughter feels a little extra cheeky.” He bopped my nose as he said ‘cheeky’ which made me playfully stick my tongue out at him. “And put that tongue away young lady we are not a snake.”

“Wrong. Don’t you remember I got sorted into Slytherin when we went to Harry Potter world.”

“Yes I do recall that. But that’s still no excuse. Stick that tongue out at me again and I’ll give you a good whopping, do I make myself clear.”

“Yes father.” I submitted. He pecked my forehead before releasing me.

“So, you’ve finished with your filming?”

“Yep. Managed to wrap up a little early, at least for me.”

“Now I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors about you potentially branching off and getting your own spinoff series?”

“Well I don’t like to brag but it’s still a rumor. Not even I can confirm it. Besides, who knows if the CW will allow it. I mean don’t get me wrong the other two sub-series I didn’t agree with but Wayward Sisters, I would’ve LOVED to see that become something. Maybe have Sarah make a few surprise appearances.”

“Well, if the CW don’t allow it, maybe Netflix will. You never know. I could put in a good word for you.”

“Thanks dad.”

“Tom! Hey Tom! Susan needs you in makeup stat. You’re shooting in ten.” One of the make artists came racing up to us.

“Oh fu—sorry about that Johnny.” My dad wrapped an arm around my shoulders and the two of us walked towards the makeup trailer so that he could get ready.

After doing a quick touch up on my dad, the two of us left for the LAPD set and everyone was already running around getting to their marks or getting the cameras rolling. I sat right next to the director Sherwin as he was calling for cameras to focus and start rolling. Finally he called action and I got to sit and watch the new Netflix: Lucifer finally be filmed.

It was a long day of shooting and filming but it was a very productive day. I even got to learn about directing since (spoiler alert! I get to direct an episode this season of Supernatural!). I was currently right now sitting with my dad sipping a cup of tea.

“Now I know that one episode that witches have familiars. If Sarah were to have a familiar, which pet would she have and who would you want to play that familiar?” I hummed.

“Well. No offense to the women but most of the time when a new female comes on Supernatural she always ends up being a bitch. With the exception of Kim, Bri, Ruthie, Felica, and the rest of the Wayward sisters. So I’d have to say Sarah would want a male familiar. And yes while I do love dogs and would KILL to have Shadow actually be in front of the camera, I think she’d prefer a cat. Now for the actor to play him. Now don’t laugh but—this is my fantasy dream cast…..”

“Oh just get on with it will you little missy! Stop droning on!” my dad whined. I mimicked his whining before I finally admitted.

“Gwilym Lee okay!”

“The Welsh actor from that Midsomer murders series you used to watch?”

“Yeah, why not? I think he’d make a perfect cat familiar. Wise, loyal, good fighter. And—not that bad looking if I may say.”

“Alright down girl. I swear you and Aimee have been fawning over actors far too much.”

“Then you do not want to see me with the young Wayward sisters. We’re a lot worse. Plus it gets awkward when they start talking about you. Especially when it involves the Lucifer cast.”

“Oh my god.” He groaned.

“I know right!? It’s bad enough I hear from the fans about how much of a ‘thirsty dad’ you are. But now I have to hear it at work!” before my dad could say anything else, Lesley came running in with a worried look on her face. “Whoa Les, where’s the fire at?”

“You gotta call the Supernatural set (y/n).” she panted out.

“Why what’s going on?”

“I don’t know something about Shadow.” Without hesitation I took my phone out and dialed Misha’s number. It rang and rang and as it kept ringing I grumbled.

“C’mon Misha pick up your bloody phone already!”

‘Hello?’

“Misha what’s going on!? What happened to my son!?”

‘I’m sorry (y/n) Jared was eating some M&M’s earlier and he left the table for one second and the next thing he saw was Shadow eating the M&M’s he had managed to knock down on the floor!’

“WHAT!?!?!?!?”

‘Just come by over here, he’s been whimpering and we don’t know the contact information to the vet.’

“Okay I’ll be there as soon as I can. Try to make him as comfortable for me as possible. Okay! Tell him mummy’s on her way!”

‘Okay I will. And (y/n). Hurry!’ I hung up the phone and raced off.

“Whoa, whoa mini-Ellis where are you off too in such a hurry?” Kevin said as he and Aimee were walking back from the catering (after I had noticed the chocolate doughnut in Aimee’s hand).

“Shadow’s sick! Ate M&M’s. I gotta go!” I couldn’t even form a proper sentence as I raced outside and phoned my driver to hurry the fuck back to the set and drive me back to the Supernatural set.

Thankfully, he was right outside and the second I jumped right on in, I banged on the back window and ordered him to drive and soon he was off. Oh Shadow baby hang in there baby boy!

Finally after what felt like an eternity (I don’t know why the driver had taken the long way around. Said it was fucking traffic or something like that). But before the car could even come to a complete stop, I jumped out of the car and raced towards the building calling out Shadow’s name.

I quickly raced into the main Supernatural set to see that it was completely empty.

“Shadow!? Shadow! Here boy!” I whistled. Just hearing the way Misha had talked on the phone it made me really worried about my baby boy’s health. And now just not seeing him come on command when he’s supposed to, got me really anxious.

I walked further through the main set (which was the map room of the bunker) when I felt myself slightly trip forward and I looked down to see a tripwire. Oh shit.

SPLASH! I jumped as I let out a shriek when a small water balloon fell right at my feet. A split second later another dropped on the other side of me but still close enough to my feet. I jumped two more times as two more water balloons splashed right by me.

“Really guys? If you’re gonna do something like that at least have good aim.” But I was unaware of the enormous water balloon that was now starting to roll down. When I looked up, my heart sunk as I slowly let out a scream and soon I was drenched.

But it wasn’t water. Well normal water anyway, when I had looked at myself I had seen that I was now covered head to toe in the famed fake blood the makeup artists make from corn syrup, chocolate syrup and food coloring.

My breathing sharpened and I growled out.

“J2. Are without a doubt. The lowest most vile Americans to EVER WALK THE PLANET!!!” This was my favorite shirt and now the boys ruined it. Plus do you know how long it takes to get fake blood out of your hair? Believe me it’s not pretty. Hours upon hours of just brushing through one section of hair.

Soon enough the entire cast came out laughing and clapping but what was shocking was that the Lucifer cast also came out smiling and clapping along.

“We got you good kid!” Misha laughed.

“You—you all were……”

“About time we finally dethroned the Prank Queen. You’ve been stealing our thunder for too long kid.” Jensen said.

“And thanks to your dad and the rest of the Lucifer cast, they gave us the time to set all this up.” Jared said as he held his phone up probably recording the whole thing. I turned to my dad and hissed.

“Et tu Papa?”

“Sorry darling. They were convincing. Plus you’ve been going a little overboard with the pranks. You even placed a dead fish in my car.” Dad said.

“Or itching powder in my underwear drawer last year during season 3.” DW added.

“And hacking my Instagram professing love for the DCEU when you know I’m a Marvel girl.” Aimee said.

“And of course you can’t forget your recent little prank. The electric cushions.” Jared said.

“So we all came together and finally got you back.” Alex said smugly.

“How’s it feel now? You just got Carrie’d!” Lauren proclaimed.

“You all are so lucky I’m not a real witch or a telepath. Cause otherwise you’d all be screwed right now!” I spat out the fake blood that was starting to seep into my mouth. “But I’ll admit. Only I could come up with something like this. I’m impressed. Especially since it was a crossover team effort.”

Both castmates from each show came around me and that’s when all the selfies and self-promotion of dethroning the “Prank Queen” has officially happened. Of course I couldn’t help but chase after J2 as well as my dad so that I could smear the blood on them as payback for what they did to me.

Yep the life of an actress on Supernatural who happens to be the daughter of the current ‘hot’ Lucifer Morningstar, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. So while the entire cast and my family got their victory out of the way, I began plotting my next ultimate prank.

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savathuns-pyramidscheme · 4 years

Text

Narratively I find the prospect of booting up a backup Cayde in the Deep Stone Crypt interesting for a few reasons, none of which are "UwU I really miss Cayde" (even if I do).

A DSC backup Cayde would in all likelihood have been Cayde-5 or earlier, so he wouldn't be a Cayde-7. He also wouldn't have any memories, even Exo ones, of being Guardian Cayde as the body would be different.

Would his soul work its way to this new body? Or would it simply be a body with a Cayde persona engraved into it? I'm inclined to believe the former, as we're not rendered soulless with each rez. That info would expand a little more on how Destiny metaphysics work. What calls you home?

How much of his personality is intrinsic to the mind/soul? I think it would be incredibly interesting to have him serve as an example of this, simply because of how much of an impression Guardian Cayde's personality leaves. We arguably knew him as well as anyone, so are in a fantastic position to observe what differs. When stripped to the barest essentials, what actually remains of a person? What constitutes their most fundemental self?

It would be an interesting way to showcase how Exos deal with reboots in real time. We have his audiologs, personal effects, and, provided we didn't honor his request to burn them, his journals. How would a newly booted Cayde, when provided with these things alongside the support of people who were friends with his other self, deal with it all? Would he feel the same loneliness his Guardian incarnation did? Would people expect him to be the man they lost, and would he meet those expectations or revolt against them?

He would still not have Sundance, and so while still extremely skilled in combat (he was recruited for a reason), he would have to deal with the fact he's extremely outclassed by those with light. It would be an interesting character development to see him deal with that alongside the expectations of those who knew the Guardian him. In a way, it could be a sort of disability story to mirror Eris's. I can't imagine him wanting to be idle, so he'd likely end up scouting like Devrim regardless of not being a Guardian.

I want to make clear I genuinely love the send-off our Cayde received, and in writing this I do not mean to imply I want that Cayde's death to be trivialized by being undone. Rather, in the same way that I am excited to get to know Guardian Uldren, I'd love to see how a non Guardian Cayde would be handled narratively and would enjoy getting to know him once again.

He wouldn't be Cayde as we knew him, just as Guardian Uldren is not the Uldren we knew. While I personally believe that a person is a person, memory wipe or no, the new life presents a clean slate with which to try for better. Just as I'm excited to get to know how Uldren would have been without the circumstances he lived in, I'd love to see that for Cayde.

*before anyone says "but he didn't want a reboot!!"...yes, but he specifically didn't want the number seven. He literally leaves an audio log for a potential future him, the prospect itself isn't the real issue. The new him using -7 is.

#destiny 2 #destiny the game #cayde-6 #deep stone crypt #narrative thoughts

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buffyversefanfiction · 3 years

Text

Slayer of Slayers

Warnings: I do not own, nor do I claim to own any of the copyright or characters within the Buffyverse which includes but not limited to the television shows Buffy and Angel, as well as the Darkhorse comics series’ continuation. 15+ Strong to moderate violence, Graphic to mild descriptions of gore, and torture, sexually charged scenes, sexual innuendos, mild to strong language, and practices of witchcraft. M/M, F/F, M/F, GEN, OTHER +

PART ONE LINK HERE

Part Two: Have Faith

Theo walked into his demonic dive bar with Faith by his side eager to introduce the slayer to the place he called home and it was not long before Faith noticed the customers within the dive bar were demons, vampires, and other supernatural creatures, all either looking at her with curiosity or hatred in their eyes while a few even looked at the raven haired slayer with a look of hunger, as if they would ever get a chance to taste her. “Your time working alongside that immortal Mayor was a rather impressive time for you Faith, going head-to-head with Buffy Summers and poisoning her beloved vampire Angelus was nothing short of magnificent but after your boss’ failed ascension you went radio silent,” Theo told Faith as the two of them walked over to the bar counter where Tobias was behind the bar serving drinks to customers. “I heard something about some kind of body swap, a jail stint, and Sunnydale being blown to pieces and then the rumors of course which I hope were just rumors.” “I swap bodies with B then tried to take out Angel again winding up in prison to which I broke out of and have been laying it low making sure my targets wind up dead, so the goodies do not come looking for me again. As for Sunnydale, well I was late for that party which is why I’m so on the ball with this one.” Faith lied to Theo as she quickly noticed the bartender Tobias listening in on their conversation. “So, are you the guy behind this whole slayer or slayers thing? Or is it a whole army? Either way, sign me up.” “I am known by those who fear me as the slayer of slayers, yes, but I rarely work alone. Have not had a slayer on my side before though so this could get interesting.” Theo replied to the slayer, proudly boasting about the evil deeds he committed. “This slayer tells a good story Theo but make sure she is not just selling it on behalf of the one we really want,” Tobias advised Theo, joining the conversation much to Faith’s annoyance. “What’s it got to do with you? The bloodsucking bartender seems to have big balls.” Faith snapped at Tobias. “He’s my partner in every meaning of the word and one day I intend to give up my mortal life so he will remain my partner forever,” Theo revealed to Faith shocking her by showing true warmth towards Tobias before he leaned over the bar and kissed his undead boyfriend. “Let’s just say if I were playing on team B Sunnydale would still be Sunnydale and not a poor man’s Grand Canyon.” Faith boasted, hoping her brag would be enough to convince this duo that she was on their side. “Here’s a thing Faith, I know you were something of a deal back in the day but she’s the slayer nobody forgets that one that defies all odds and changed everything making such a big mess of everything,” Theo responded to Faith making it clear his main target was Buffy Summers. “She’s the girl in all of this world, the one kill that will really mean something.” “I get you that think you’re a big shot because you’ve taken out a few rookie slayers, but B and I have been at this a hell of a lot longer than the others and she has this tendency to come back from the dead on the rare occasion somebody actually gets the better of her.” Faith reminded Theo and Tobias of Buffy’s impressive record. “You have not shown me nothing that proves you would stand a second against Buffy let alone be something of use to me.” “If I’m going to take advice on taking out Buffy, I’m not going to take it from some burned-out slayer who tried, failed, and fell straight into a coma.” Theo taunted the slayer, not convinced he needed or wanted her help. “I’ll admit I was a stupid go-getter back then too stupid for my own good which is exactly what I’m getting from you.” Faith said, mocking the man who claimed to be the slayer of slayers. “I do not care how hot you think your shit is you go up against Buffy with what you got now, and you will die.” “I think I’m going to like this slayer,” Theo told Tobias as the two lovers looked at each other with a sense of excitement on both of their faces, as Faith realized, she may have finally got her in with the

two guys who had been killing all the slayers who had the misfortune of coming to Los Angeles.

After sharing several drinks with Theo and Tobias, Faith had decided to go on a walk with Theo strolling through the dark and dirty alleyways of L.A, knowing that this slayer of slayers had either taken her outside to lure her into a trap, or worse, he was going to try to make her prove her loyalty to his mission by finding another slayer, one that Faith would have to kill. “I’ve never had any issue beating anyone in a fight, the fighting comes pretty easy to me too easy, that is why taking down the big one, Buffy Summers is so important to me, I long for the challenge,” Theo admitted to her as they continued their walk. “Tobias thinks me a fool for not fearing her enough but my hatred for slayers, especially that one is just too strong for me to want to do anything but kill the bitch.” “I get hating on Buffy, but the girls got serious game, The Master, Angelus, The Mayor, are just some of her hits, and let’s not forget that cyborg guy and the freaking god she slew.” Faith replied, reminding Theo of Buffy’s rather impressive track record. “I am very aware of Buffy’s never-ending victories however, to fear anyone who feels the need to go into hiding is somewhat pathetic and it makes me wonder whether or not you have gone soft on me,” Theo revealed as the two stopped walking, and a group of vampires appeared from out of the shadows to absolutely no surprise to Faith. “Hey, if you want me to prove myself by turning your lackies into dust then that is on you dude.” Faith boasted, as she looked around at the vampires marching towards her, knowing that she could take them all, as she wondered if Theo had any power at all or if he was hiding behind his rather lackluster army.

It did not take Faith long to get the better of the vampires who Theo had sent to test out her slayer abilities and once she did exactly what she promised to do, dusting all the vampires, Faith decided to head back to the demonic dive bar to gloat about her victory only to walk into the mostly now empty bar to find Theo and Tobias behind the bar kissing passionately once again. “Do you two ever come up for air or is that a bit pointless considering one of you is dead?” Faith asked as she walked over to the bar counter. “Actually, won’t that make one of you need air even more?” “Those vampires were disposable just like the slayers themselves, however, you do seem to be the exception.” Theo complimented Faith on her victory. “Consider me impressed by you still being alive and looking like you did not so much as break a sweat.” “So, we’re down a bunch of minions and if things went wrong, we would have been down a slayer too,” Tobias complained to Theo, making it clear to Faith that he had not been part of Theo’s ambush. “Some of those guys have been with us for a long time Theo, not to mention another slayer on the side would be a bonus despite what she thinks about her.” “She’s alive, isn’t she? And if they could be taken out that easily then they were of no use to us in the first place.” Theo snapped back at his love appearing to be more soulless than the man next to him, who literally had no soul. “You should have let me in on the plan, I know you like to think you run things around here Theo, but we are meant to be a partnership,” Tobias said with a saddened sigh, shocking Faith by the look of hurt on his face making it clear that this vampire really did have genuine feelings for Theo. “I do not mean to interfere in this lover’s spat but who’s this she who I’m guessing does not think of me too fondly?” Faith asked in an attempt to break some of the awkwardness, as well as learn more about their little operation. “Toby’s vampire mother, he’s a total mummy’s boy never likes straying too far off her path it gets rather tedious to be honest,” Theo told the slayer willingly, making a dig at his partner at the same time. “You know I hate being called Toby. And as for me being a mummy’s boy, I am just smart enough to follow her rules unlike you who seems set on doing whatever the hell you want whenever the hell you want to.” Tobias continued to complain to Theo making his feelings heard. “Babe, you know I love you but sometimes I just got to be me. If I told you my plans, you’d have just talked me out of it and I know she’s got an eye on everything but that does not mean that my plans are not solid either.” Theo replied to his lover in a softer tone. “I just need you to believe in me more sometimes than I would not have to keep anything from you.” “Wow, for two evil guys killing slayers wherever they go that was pretty deep.” Faith told them both, surprised by the clear love between these two men but before either of them could reply to her, two vampires walked into the bar with a woman clearly drugged out, being held by them both, an innocent, making Faith realize they had found their next target. “Did you order takeout?” Theo joked with Tobias, as the two smiled at each other unnerving Faith by the sudden turnaround between these two men. “This is not just some woman boss, it’s a slayer, she took out some of our guys before we got her and delivered her here to you.” One of the vampires confessed. “I guess you picked the right ones for your suicide mission after all,” Tobias admitted as he kissed Theo on the lips. “You know it, babe!” Theo replied with a sense of excitement, as Faith recognized the look on his face, it was a look she knew far too well, a look that meant Theo enjoyed every kill, got off on the darkness as she did once upon a time.

Faith knew that the slayer which Theo and Tobias now held was not going to make it out of there alive if she did not take any action and so when she had the opportunity, she left the dive bar claiming to be ready to hit the sheets but instead, she went to see Angel at the Hyperion Hotel to fill him in on her discoveries while being undercover. “So, I have no clue if this dude has powers or what, but he’s definitely got himself a following and a vampire lover.” Faith confessed to Angel after walking into his office within the Hyperion Hotel. “There is something about him that I cannot quite figure out yet and his whole relationship with that vamp is all kinds of uncomfortable in the sense that they're basically like a married couple.” “Does this mean you’ve found a way of earning their trust or you wound up killing everybody to avoid things getting too cringey?” Angel joked with Faith as he stood up from his chair. “Thing is they’re currently torturing the hell out of another slayer, so we are going to have to stop earning trust and start taking action!” Faith revealed making it clear how urgently the situation had to be handled. “There used to be just one or two of use now there are so many folks are collecting them…then killing them I guess, sure doesn’t help if they’re not being hunted by the forces of evil, we have military operations to contend with too not to mention the supernatural secret being out for all to know,” Angel replied to the slayer, reminiscing about less complicated times. “Listen I do not know if this is a set-up if the girl is even a slayer, but either way we cannot just leave her there for the slaughter, we got to save the girl, slayer or not.” Faith warned Angel, showing how far she had come along since her old days of being the vampire slayer causing all the trouble. “I am game for whatever the plan is, and I’ll get Illyria in on everything, so she’s caught up too, she’s always down for a fight anyway,” Angel told her, making it clear he trusted her completely and it was entirely up to her how she played this one out.

After a quick de-brief with Angel, Faith got herself back together, contacted Theo and Tobias, and decided to return to the dive bar, knowing damn fine that she was either walking into a trap set up by the two or she was about to blow her cover by saving the woman that they were holding hostage. “Who sent you? Was it her?” Theo questioned the slayer that he had tied up to an upside-down table, before throwing a poisonous dart right into her chest, with several poisonous darts already in her body, causing the woman to scream out in pain which was met by laughs from Theo, Tobias, and the others in his bar, as Faith walked into the horrifying scene. “Nobody sent me L.A. is my home.” The girl cried in pain as Faith stood there reluctantly watching Theo throw yet another poisonous dart at the fellow slayer, this one launching itself into her right leg, noticing how the woman’s screams only served to further delight the twisted Theo. “I thought you were going to sleep or something like that?” Tobias said to Faith as he walked over to greet the slayer, while Theo’s focus remained on playing a deadly game of darts with the captured slayer, reveling in her pain. “Theo tends to get a little carried away when he gets a new toy, but the customers love a good show, and it makes him happy.” “I bet they do…you do not seem too on the torture side of things? I’ve done my fair share of torture and I can tell when a guy is not into it.” Faith replied to the vampire bartender as she kept her eye on Theo, who eventually stopped what he was doing and walked over to greet his supposed new ally. “I am more of an old-fashioned vampire, I like to hunt as much as any, but I like my prey to not even know they are being tortured, there is nothing more thrilling to manipulate than one’s mind and blood of the seduced tastes so sweet,” Tobias answered Faith before Theo put his arms around the vampire. “I do love to watch you in your element,” Theo said to Tobias before kissing him on the cheek tenderly. “So, do I get a shot at playing darts or what?” Faith asked rhetorically, not waiting for an answer as she walked over to the bar counter and picked up one of the poisonous darts, noticing they had a smell something that if she had to guess, it would be something acidic. Faith stood there for a moment and looked over at the beaten, bruised, and bloodied slayer, who had been used as a human dartboard by those she was in the bar with, as she began to recall her own methods of torture she inflicted on her former watcher Wesley Wyndham Price, knowing that although he forgave her in the end that she inflicted trauma on him that could never be erased and for a split second she found herself relating to Theo. She knew there was a chance of good in this guy because he was in love and surely evil could not truly love? And she knew there must be something inside of him worth caring about if a soulless vampire loved him back but despite her conflicting feelings towards both Theo and Tobias, she knew more than anything that one way or another they had to be stopped, and so she launched the poisoned dart which was in her hand and threw it in Theo’s direction, only to be left shocked when Theo caught it in his hands in true slayer style, making her wonder if he was actually a slayer, a male slayer. “Damn girl! I guess this means our perfect partnership has come to an end before it ever truly begun.” Theo said to Faith as he threw the poisonous dart to the ground. “Buffy really did break you, didn’t she?” Theo and Tobias began walking towards Faith, as their demonic, and vampire, clientele circled the slayer so she could not escape but just as things were looking outnumbered for Faith, Angel burst through the front door and instantly pulled out stakes from both his sleeves and staked two vampires, distracting the devilish duo by his arrival as their two minions turned to dust. “Angelus,” Theo stated with a sense of excitement, clearly having heard of the vampire with a soul’s impressive history. Angel and Faith wasted no time as they began fighting their way through

the crowd of demons, vampires, and creatures, fighting, staking, and killing, anything in their way to getting Tobias and Theo, the two quickly make an escape from their bar as Tobias dragged a reluctant Theo along with him, despite his pleas to stay and watch the show as the two made it into the alleyway outside of the bar before Theo pushed Tobias’ grip off him, infuriated by Tobias’ escape plans. “Why the hell are we running? We never run away from a fight especially not one including him!” Theo shouted at his vampire lover, infuriated by Tobias’ fear of Angel and Faith. “If we stay then we die Theo, I know you’ve got one hell of an ego, but it is not worth dying for even if you could take Faith there’s no chance, we could take both her and Angelus,” Tobias admitted to him, making it clear they had to run to survive. “I do not care, Tobias! If we lose this fight, then we lose but what a bloody awesome way to go out.” Theo replied making it clear he was more than ready to risk his own life if it meant he’d be challenged in a fight. Before Tobias could argue anymore with Theo, Theo suddenly saw hands appear around the vampire’s neck before his head was torn off his body, turning the vampire to dust, as the goddess Illyria now stood in the ashes of the man Theo loved, leaving the slayers of slayers screaming and sobbing. “You killed him you bitch!” Theo screamed as he launched his right fist across Illyria’s face, punching her with such strength that Illyria had only felt from one species before, slayers. Illyria responded by punching him with all her goddess strength, sending the grieving lover flying across the alleyway, landing in a bunch of rubbish, before quickly getting back on his feet, clearly injured, as he began running away from the blue-haired god with a limp to his run, leaving Illyria amused to see another running scared from her after a single punch. “Humans…you give them a bit of strength and they think they are gods.” Illyria scoffed, mocking the so-called slayer of slayers, having hoped for more of a fight from this male vampire slayer.

“The male is a slayer it seems the first man of his kind.” Illyria declared to Angel and Faith, after the three returned to the Hyperion Hotel, thrilled to have destroyed the slayer of slayers’ operations. “He punches like a slayer but falls like a mortal.” “Except for Billy who is still more an associate to the slayers, the slayer line has never touched upon any males before so why the hell has it changed now?” Faith asked the group, wondering how Theo could even be a slayer. “Willow changed everything when everyone started becoming slayers maybe it’s time for the men to get into the action too.” Angel guessed. “There was something strangely familiar when he called me Angelus…I’ve never met him before, but it felt like he had met me.” “He seems to have a real personal hatred for Buffy the kind you only get from meeting a person but it’s not like we can ask her who Theo is considering she’s been M.I.A since…well we all know.” Faith responded, stopping herself from bringing up the situation that had made Buffy quit slaying, knowing it would only upset Angel. “I say you two stop playing detectives and take on the roles of an executioner. This blood bag has the power of a slayer nothing too impressive, but I sensed a stronger power somewhat dormant for now, so we kill him before whatever power lies within him becomes active.” Illyria informed the two, trying to get them on her side of thinking, that Theo had to die just like Tobias. “We killed one of them…something tells me we’ve already broken Theo.” Faith stated with a sense of sadness, unable not to feel sorry for her fellow slayer who had just lost the love of his life. “You sound like you feel sorry for the guy? Did you not see the state that woman was in when we took her to the hospital?” Angel questioned his friend, before going on to say. “Do you really think he’s worth saving?” Faith wanted to answer yes, that if she could find redemption so could Theo, but this rogue slayer had just lost the only love of his life and she knew they were to blame for that loss, fearing that if they did not put Theo down he would stop at nothing to kill every last one of them, and so she was left with a difficult decision but luckily Angel was there by her side so she did not have to make that decision alone.

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dascarecrow · 4 years

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Death Battle - Oscar Pine

Wiz- Since humanity’s earliest age the world of Remnant has been plagued by the creatures of Grimm.

Boomstick- AKA a cheap rip off of the Heartless. These bad boys are destruction incarnate which sounds awesome at first but it really just means they live to ruin your day.

Wiz- Yet for as long as the Grimm have haunted humanity they have been protected by the elite warriors known as Huntsmen.

Boomstick- These kick ass fighters are the best of the best and the baddest of the bad. They also wield some of the most awesome weapons ever made. Because nearly all of them? Are also a gun.

Wiz- Huntsmen are trained at combat academies across the world. And the greatest of them are trained at the main academies of each major kingdom. Shade Academy in Vacuo, Haven Academy in Mistral, Atlas Academy in Atlas-

Boomstick- Real original there.

Wiz- And Beacon Academy in Vale.

Boomstick- Man a school where you learn how to beat the snot out of people, hunt evil monsters and build cool weapons? If they had that kind of curriculum when I was in high school I definitely would have paid more attention. At least try to get a B+ on something instead of all those Fs and Cs.

Wiz- Unknown to the public however is that the headmasters of each Academy are part of a secret alliance dedicated to protecting the people of Remnant and ensuring their prosperity led by the headmaster Beacon Academy, Ozpin.

Boomstick- And like any good conspiracy the Ozluminati knows a whole bunch of secrets. Like the true origin of Dust and who faked the moon breaking.

Wiz- One of the greatest secrets that they have kept is existence of magic in Remnant.

Boomstick- Like actual wave your hand and make stuff happen magic. Which I don’t really get keeping hidden. I mean Huntsmen can do a whole bunch of stuff that’s pretty much magic anyways. And even stuff that magic doesn’t do. So why hide it from people?

Wiz- That’s actually because of the prospective dangers that magic could bring.

Boomstick- Oh yeah like what?

*Scenes play of Raven, Penny and Fria using their magic and devastating their enemies*

Boomstick- Never mind. I’ll take being able to call up hurricanes whenever I want over a scythe that turns into a rifle.

Wiz- Ozpin led the other headmasters and select other agents in keeping several secrets, including magic, hidden away because he feared the turmoil and destruction that would result if they were ever discovered.

Boomstick- And it actually went pretty well. Remnant had it’s problems but it was actually looking pretty good. Until some crazy fire lady *a picture of Cinder appears* found out about magic, went “I want me some of that”, teamed up with a terrorist organization and decided to get her hands on the nearest available bit of magic. Which was hidden under Beacon Academy.

Wiz- Dark forces would attack in the tragedy that would become known as the Fall of Beacon. The school would be devastated, the students harmed and traumatized beyond measure and Ozpin himself would fall during the battle. But this would not be the end for Ozpin.

Boomstick- Yeah turns out Dumbledore here actually had quite a few secrets of his own. One of which is that he was at this job a lot longer than anyone ever knew.

Wiz- In ancient times the Gods of Light and Darkness who had created Remnant saw the trials humanity endured to survive with each passing day and sought to give their creation a chance at salvation. They reached into the afterlife and returned to Remnant the greatest warrior to ever walk its surface, a mage knight known as Ozma.

Boomstick- Of course because Gods are kind of jerks they gave the Wizard of Oz a skewed deal.

Wiz- The Gods tasked Ozma with uniting humanity together and calling them to return to Remnant so they may pass judgement. Should humanity be in harmony upon their return the Gods would walk alongside them once more and grant to humanity grand gifts as reward.

Boomstick- Not a bad deal really. Everyone plays all nice and you get some sweet magic powers out of it. Why wouldn’t you want to do that?

Wiz- But if the Gods returned to find humanity divided and selfishly demanding that which was never theirs then it would be final day Remnant would ever see for humanity would be destroyed.

Boomstick- Oh right. How is that supposed to work then? I mean the gods come back and they see some guys arguing over their favorite sports team and they just go “Your no good. Gonna kill you all”. I mean I get the appeal of having magic powers but does that really outweigh complete genocide? Huntsmen have their own personal superpowers and Dust is as good as magic anyway.

Wiz- Regardless Ozma agreed to the gods request, motivated by his sense of justice and belief in the inherent good of humanity.

Boomstick- And the chance to see his ex again. *Picture of Salem appears* Can’t forget about that.

Wiz- Indeed. Of course the Gods recognized that the work they tasked Ozma with could take quite some time so they made arrangements which resulted in a rather unusual return for him.

Boomstick- The Gods kind of have a thing against full blown resurrection so they didn’t just zap their newest employee back to Remnant. No they decided to stuff Ozzy Osbourne’s soul into some random sucker so he could get to work.

Wiz- The Gods did not wish Ozma to bear the burden of his work alone so they made it that he would return in the body of another, which carried a like minded soul that his own would merge with. In the course of his work Ozma would discover that death was no longer the same for him.

Boomstick- The Gods basically made him the Avatar. *Shows picture of Aang* Whenever Willy Wonka wound up biting it his soul would crop up again in some other schmuck and merge with whatever soul was already living there. Rinse and repeat for the next few thousand years.

Wiz- The man known as Ozpin would wind up being the latest in this long line of reincarnations, continuing his past lives work in uniting the people of Remnant so they may pass the Gods Judgement.

Boomstick- And once Gandalf here was down for the count it was time for another round of musical souls. Where he stops who the heck knows.

Wiz- Ozpin’s would wind up reincarnating in a young farmhand known as Oscar Pine, who would find himself continuing the work that Ozma had began millennia ago and the inheritor of his countless lives knowledge and power.

Boomstick- Man I don’t know who to feel worse for. Pinecone for having an old dude stuck in his head that can see all of his private thoughts. Or the Clockwork Wizard for being stuck in the head of a kid that’s just starting puberty.

Wiz- As a result of this merger of souls Oscar would inherit Ozpin’s memories and more importantly his fighting skill and powers.

Boomstick- As the headmaster of a school for hunting literal soulless monsters Ozpin knew how to throw down with the best of them and Oscar got everything the old professor knew downloaded straight to his brain, none of that pesky learning stuff the hard way needed. He would even be given Ozpin’s own personal weapon... a cane. A cane. That was seriously this guys weapon? He fights for thousands of years to protect humanity, counter hordes of dark mosters and try to make it so the Gods give Remnant a passing grade and his personal way of beating people up was with a walking stick. Starting to see why it took him so long to get people up to snuff.

Wiz- Don’t be so quick to judge Boomstick. Ozpin was supremely gifted with his weapon, often using it like a rapier to rapidly jab at enemies and wear them down faster then they could respond. *Scenes of Ozpin’s fight with Cinder* And because he has Ozpin’s memories Oscar can do this just as well. *Scenes of Oscar’s fight with Hazel* However Oscar has chosen to focus on his own fighting style instead of simply repeating Ozpin’s. Oscar’s own personal style has a greater emphasis on striking power than speed, being centered around strong, focused blows instead of the rapid fire technique Ozpin preferred.

Boomstick- Finally someone who gets that the best way of doing things is by hitting the crap out of them as hard as possible. And it works pretty well for the farm boy. He was able to one shot a Sabyr, which was about two and a half times his size. And keep in mind Grimm are pretty much all bulk. Oscar pretty much killed that thing by stabbing it with a blunt object. Not to mention that he was able to smack someone so hard that they tumbled down the stairs and made Hazel stagger back a few feet when they collided with him. Hazel, who was able to catch the mini wrecking ball that is Magnhild and was stabbed through his stomach by a giant ice wasp and got back up like it was nothing.

Wiz- Given the loss of energy that would have resulted from rolling down the steps and Hazel’s own notable durability then we can safely say that Oscar used an extreme amount of force in this one attack.

Boomstick- And if Alpine gets tired of trying to whack people with a overhyped brake lever than he has some decent hand to hand skill as well. He was able to round a corner, close the distance and punch Neo so hard that she went flying down the hallway, all faster than she could react. And Neo’s whole thing is that she can literally dance around just about anyone like they’re moving in slow motion. Oscar was able to outpace her a few times during their fight and that’s immediately after he’d already taken some bad hits. She’d have done even worse if he’d been starting fresh. Not bad for a farm hand.

Wiz- Oscar’s impressive performance is probably helped by his Aura.

Boomstick- You mean that rip off of the force from Pokemon? Wait do Pokemon live on Remnant? Are the Grimm actually Pokemon and they’re what happens when humanity doesn’t learn how to make Pokeballs? Does this mean animal slavery is actually perfectly justified?

Wiz- No. On all acccounts.

Boomstick (disappointed)- Aaaaah.

Aura

- Grants shielding

- Empowers strikes

- Environmental Protection

- Heightened Awareness

- Enhances Healing

Wiz- Aura is the soul made manifest, the user’s essence rendered into tangible form.

Boomstick- Is that supposed to be arousing or the complete opposite?

Wiz- Aura grants anyone who possesses it a great many benefits, primarily in terms of defense. Anyone with an active Aura automatically receives a shield that protects them from harm and damage. Oscar was able to take hits from flaming boulders and barely showed any hint that he even felt the attack.

Boomstick- Wait, wait, wait. You mean that if someone gets this Aura stuff they automatically become invulnerable to being hurt? Wiz I’m calling in three of the favors you owe me to give me some of that stuff.

Wiz- Aura doesn’t just prevent users from coming to harm though. It can also enhance striking power, be channeled through weaponry to increase it’s power, protect the user from harsh environmental factors like extreme cold, give someone heightened awareness of their surrounding to the point they can detect approaching enemies and even boost one’s healing.

Boomstick- Alright Wiz I’ll make it seven favors and I’ll use Jocelyn’s credit card the next time I get drunk and come up with an awesome idea. Man thousands of years of of combat experience and a personal force field that increases strength and healing? This kid must kick all sorts of-

*Montage of Oscar getting attacked by Ruby, Qrow, Jaune, the Hound and ends with him being shot by Ironwood*

Boomstick- *now depressed* Oh right. Aura kind of sucks.

Wiz- While Aura is formidable it does have it’s limits. Every blow it takes will cause one’s Aura to wear down and deplete. The stronger the hit the more damage Aura will take from it. And even those gifted with extraordinary amounts can’t maintain it indefinitely.

Boomstick- Yep. Take it from me folks it doesn’t matter how big the bottle is. If you keep drinking from it, sooner or later you’re going to run out.

Wiz- And once it’s completely depleted Aura will break, leaving the user vulnerable.

Boomstick- How the heck does that work? I mean it’s your soul. You always have it. So shouldn’t this Aura stuff always be going? And if it breaks shouldn’t you I don’t know die or something?

Wiz- To be exact Aura isn’t actually the user’s soul, but rather a type of energy harnessed from it. So it’s depletion and breaking isn’t actually fatal to the user. It also isn’t something that runs automatically. Aura has to be consciously activated and dismissed by the user. So it is possible for someone to be caught off guard because they don’t their Aura running.

Boomstick- Figures. You find a super cool energy that can give everyone super powers and it turns out to suck eggs.

Wiz- Well just because your Aura runs out doesn’t mean it’s the end of fight. It does recover over time and trained users can speed up how fast it rebuilds with just a bit of focus and willpower. Oscar’s teammate Jaune has shown the ability to restore his Aura after focusing for a brief moment. And given Ozpin’s countless lifetimes of experience it stands to reason that Oscar has the ability to do this as well.

Boomstick- And even if Oscar’s Aura does wind up failing him he still has a few tricks up his sleeve. Magic ones. Remember Ozma wasn’t just a highly skilled warrior he was also gifted mage. So his whole conga line of souls also gets cool magic powers.

Magic

Controls the elements (fire, ice, wind , lightning, etc.)

Energy blasts

Creates shields

Telekinetic movement

Wiz- Quite right Boomstick among all the denizens of Remnant, Oscar is one of the rare few gifted with magic in the current age. While the exact abilities Oscar can use are nebulous we can infer some details going by what other magic users have done. He can unleash streams of pure power as an attack.

Boomstick- And these emerald streamers pack a punch. Salem was able to shrug off Hazel literally splattering her all over the ground and returned the beating without missing a beat.

Wiz- While Salem can regenerate from any damage done to her she still feels pain and can be hurt, even if the damage is undone.

Boomstick- Oscar brought her to her knees with one blast of his magic, which also left her in visible pain. So it’s safe to say he hit her way harder than Hazel was able to. And that guy dropped a friggin meteor on top of her. *Shows clip of Hazel doing just that*

Wiz- We have also seen magic be shaped into different forms so presumably Oscar can do this as well. His past lives have been seen creating fields of magic that can move others in a telekinetic fashion and there’s no reason to believe Oscar can’t still do so in present day, albeit not quite on the scale Ozma was once able to.

Boomstick- Yeah one of the lives of Doctor Who did something kind of dumb. A bunch of sisters came by his house and were all “hope, joy and love” and he decided to give them almost all of his magic because of good vibes or something. I mean why would you give up actual magic powers that made you such a kick ass knight in the first place?

Wiz- (annoyed) Anyways... Oscar lacks the reserves of magic power that Ozma once held and while we don’t have an exact measure we’re going to go with about a rate of 5 to 10 percent remaining. Fortunately for Oscar magic doesn’t deplete the way Aura does so he can use it almost without limit. And the power of the Maidens, that is the sisters he gave his magic to, gives us a view of what Oscar can accomplish. Namely the power of the elements

Elemental Magic

Fire

Ice

Lightning

Wind

Plant life

Boomstick- Most folks on Remnant can do stuff like throw around fireballs or lightning bolts with the use of Dust. But magic lets you do that stuff all on your own and with no limit either.

Wiz- Mind you Oscar’s lesser reserves mean he can’t do anything on the scale of the Maidens but he does still have the capacity to control the elements, just to a lesser degree than most magic users. But the greatest asset magic grants Oscar is his shield.

Boomstick- Don’t let the fact that it looks like a glass bubble fool you, this mystical barrier is actually pretty sturdy. It’s stood up to the full power of the Fall Maiden, allowed Oscar to survive a several miles long fall without any injury whatsoever and is so strong that it let him crash right through the bottom of Atlas and keep on going with no problem.

Wiz- Actually Boomstick that last feat wasn’t a result of Oscar’s magic.

Boomstick- Oh? I guess you’re going to tell me that glorified bike handle of his did it.

Wiz- It did as a matter of fact.

Boomstick- Wait what? How is that possible? It’s a cane for crying out loud. It’s something old people use for getting around and whupping the young, not the tool of a seasoned warrior and mage.

Wiz- Oscar’s cane, much like it’s holder, far more than it appears and has quite a few surprises.

Boomstick- Oh this should be good.

The Long Memory

Oscar’s personal weapon

Once wielded by Ozpin

Incredibly durable

Focus for magic

Stores kinetic energy

Wiz- Oscar’s weapon, known as the Long Memory, is a collapsible cane that he carries at almost all times. The cane itself is highly durable, able to take hits from a Dust empowered Hazel without any sign of strain or damage. Hazel boasted immense physical strength on his lonesome and the benefit of Dust significantly increased his damage output.

Boomstick- Okay so it’s a pretty strong cane. But it’s still just a cane.

Wiz- The Long Memory is also a channel and focus for Oscar’s magic, enabling him to use it on a higher scale than he would be able to on his own merits.

Boomstick- Oh like a magic wand.

Wiz- More like a scepter.

Boomstick- Like a magic staff?

Wiz- Scepter.

Boomstick- I get you, it’s like a magic rod.

Wiz- Boomstick I swear if I have to get the shock collar again...

Boomstick- Geez calm down Wiz I’m just funning ya. So this walking stick is pretty much a *Wiz glares at Boomstick* “magic scepter” that lets pine tree use magic better than he can by himself. That’s kind of cool actually but why make it something that looks like an emergency brake?

Wiz- The Long Memory has one more special trick, completely separate from Aura and magic. It can store and carry kinetic energy.

Boomstick- I’m sorry what kind of energy?

Wiz- *exasperated* Stuff that make bullets go shoot.

Boomstick- I know what it is Wiz. No need to get snippy. Man you are so juvenile. Anyways why is that so special?

Wiz- *trying to be professional* With each passing moment and every blow struck The Long Memory accumulates kinetic energy and having been crafted centuries ago it has quite a reservoir of power to access. Oscar can access this stored up energy whenever he wishes, unleashing bolts and waves sheer power. This allowed him to blast a hole through the bottom of Atlas when he was sent plummeting to his doom in the Vault of the Winter Maiden.

Boomstick- Huh. Not a bad parlor trick I’ll admit but how much damage can he really do with that thin-

*Scene of Oscar destroying Monstra plays*

Boomstick stares in open mouthed shock while Wiz looks on with a smug grin.

Wiz- You were saying?

Boomstick- HOLY MOTHERF*BLEEP*ING S*BLEEP*T! Did that kid just fire off a magic nuke?

Wiz-To be fair Oscar can’t throw around attacks like that too often. This particular instance used up the majority of stored up power that the Long Memory had available. And that power was gathered across several lifetimes if not centuries. He definitely wouldn’t be able to use an attack on this level repeatedly. He would be able to recover some of the kinetic energy however because the Long Memory gathers and stores it away automatically. Smaller expenditures may not necessarily be reclaimed but the cane would definitely avoid running completely out of power with this aspect of it’s abilities. Anything you’d like to add Boomstick?

Boomstick- *still in shock* I-, Yeah not really, my mind is going to be stuck on that nuke thing for a while.

Wiz- *shrugging it off* Okay then. Come back in a few days where we’ll cover Oscar’s opponent, Izuku Midoriya.

#Death Battle #RWBY #Probably a bit wordy #But I feel I've captured the spirit of the show well #Plus they have to be concise to release weekly #I get the benefit of going over a bit with dialogue

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shirtlesssammy · 5 years

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15x13: Destiny’s Child

Welcome to our last new recap for a while (frowny face). We’ve got a couple requests that we’re going to work on in the next couple weeks, and then chip away at all the episodes we have yet to do while we not-so-patiently wait for more episodes. If you have requests, don’t hesitate to ask!

Then:

Cas loves one (1) pizza man.

Now:

Late night study sesh in the bunker is interrupted when Sam and Dean hear a weird noise down the hall. They take off for the armory, only to find a Fiat and ---SAM AND DEAN?! (And while I guess it’s not, I’m just rolling with the idea that Savage Garden is blasting from that little clown car. I mean, really, what a perfect song and one I never thought would EVER pop up on this show --okay, or any show, it’s been like 20 years since I’ve heard that song, lol.)

The rift flickers and Alt!Sam and Dean disappear.

They tell Cas about what happened. Billie pops up to tell them that Chuck is almost done destroying all the other worlds. They have to be ready --and by that, she means, it’s time for the next step in Jack’s training. He needs to find the Occultum. Sam helpfully translates that as “hidden.” It is hidden --lost for centuries.

Once Billie takes off, Sam sets to learning more about the Occultum. There isn’t much. Dean ponders the futility of killing God. Doesn’t Jack need to kill Amara too? Cas gets a lead on the Occultum from Sergei. Dean and Cas flirt unnecessarily. Cas is so patient with all of Dean’s ideas, I can’t help but think that this is a common thing with these two.

Anyway, the Occultum was owned by the Jacobson family for a long time, until they used it as payment to heal their son. The healer was “attractive, and she healed the child by laying on hands which glowed.” I don’t know if there’s been an unattractive person in this universe, so good luck finding the healer!

Lol, j/k, there’s only one angel healer that’s attractive out there! Sam and Dean find Anael and want her help with killing God. She thinks it’s wiser to stay on the side of the all-powerful being. When the brothers flash their angel blades (eerrr…), Anael confesses that the Occultum is really with Ruby. (I was one of the many rage viewers with this, but well, we’ve been rage watching these writers for so long, and we’ve had to handwave SO much over the years. What’s another plot point that we can easily headcanon at this point? Sigh.)

We get a flashback of Ruby and Anael negotiating the sale of the Occultum. Anael then tells them that the Occultum was never actually sold because they ganked Ruby before she could do anything with it. It’s now safely hidden in Hell.

Jack, meanwhile, is busy getting back to life.

Cas finds him in the kitchen eating EVERYTHING. Jack notes that coming back alive really makes you pay attention to what life is. “Hot, cold, sweet, spicy, funny, scary.” (Kind of like Sam when he was soulless, Jack is describing sensations, and not feelings, emotions, not really getting at what life really is.) They talk about Jack’s soul and what he felt when he had one.

Jack admits that he understands that he hurt Sam and Dean, and wonders if Dean will ever forgive him for what he did to Mary. “Dean, he feels things, more acutely than any human I’ve ever known. So, it’s possible he could work through this. One day, he may explode, and let it all out, and breathe deeply and move on.”

Okayokayokayokay. Jack wants to know how long that’ll take and Cas admits that he doesn’t know, and I’M FEELING about how this ageless, ancient being is just WAITING for Dean to do this very thing. He has all the time in the world from his perspective. He knows Dean --really knows him, and it doesn’t matter how long for him because time doesn’t really matter for Cas (I mean, I think being close to humanity and all it probably means more than it used to but...I’m just rambling about my feelings right now. This is Boris --Natasha is far more coherent and eloquent with her thoughts, lol.)

The brothers make it back to the bunker, planning on heading to Hell. Cas leads them to a room where Alt!Sam and Dean are stuck between the worlds. Dean doesn’t care at this moment --he wants to get the Occultum. They tell Cas their plan and he thinks they’re crazy. They could be searching forever down there. (UH, they’re LITERALLY BFFs with the Queen of Hell.)

Anyway, Dean and Sam head south while Cas babysits the spell.

Cas still doesn’t like this plan and hatches a plan with Jack so he can talk with Ruby in the Empty.

(I know, you just have to roll with Buckleming episodes, etc., but their insistence on making it beyond easy to jump from realm to realm is MADDENING.)

We get a mention of Cas’s deal with the Empty, so that really is still a thing. Cas is “far from happy”, so we’re good!

His plan is for Jack to “draw out most of [his] lifeforce” and store it in a flask. What’s his “lifeforce”? His grace? Something more? Something else? How does he die without his grace? How is he just mostly dead but still able to go to the Empty?

We’re also giving this exchange: “If I screw up?” “Well, then I’ll be lost forever.” WHOA. What kind of fucked up parenting are you writing, Buckleming? Good thing Jack doesn’t have a soul, because that’ll mess with a child forever.

Also, why can Jack use his powers now?

Sam and Dean are ambushed in Hell. Anael wanted them dead apparently and made a deal with some demons (ONCE AGAIN, like Rowena would allow this to happen!?!??) They’re Sam and Dean Winchester though and easily dispatch the demons.

Cas stalks through the Empty calling for Ruby. “Hello, Clarence,” a familiar voice says and Cas turns to find Meg reclining on a throne. He looks sweetly surprised to see her before his face falls as he realizes she’s the Shadow from the Empty.

The Shadow may be allied with Billie, but they’re definitely not good buds with Cas. Nevertheless, “Go get her, pizza man,” Shadow!Meg says and a ball of flame swirls towards Cas and turns into Ruby.

Cas asks about the Occultum, and Ruby asks after Sam. Cas refuses to answer and, since I’ve been stress re-reading some regency romances lately, I’m gonna go ahead and say he acts like an affronted chaperone.

For Gratuitous Cas Science:

We see another flashback of Ruby and Sister Jo’s wild adventures, only this time Jo is the one who invited Ruby to talk to her. Jo tries to tempt Ruby into hiding from the apocalypse in the Occultum. It turns out it’s a place AND a thing. A whatever, if you will. Ruby cut a deal with Jo, hid the object, and then died her noble death.

Ruby promises to help Cas as long as he can get her out of the Empty. You see, instead of lullabies and sweet dreams, or even quiet and no dreams, the Empty is nothing but endless reels of regrets playing over and over for every angel and demon trapped there. “Yeah, I know,” Cas says quietly and we all break a little bit thinking about how he swore it was nothingness instead of constant emotional torture. (That’s SO on brand.) Cas promises to try to free Ruby in exchange for her intel.

The Winchesters return to find Jack babysitting the spell alongside a MOSTLY DEAD Cas. Despite Jack’s (actually really terrible) explanation, Dean and Sam demand that Jack bring Cas back right away. Jack unscrews the flask.

Cas isn’t getting out of this so easily, though. The Shadow smirks and clenches Shadow!Meg’s fist, sending Cas to the ground in pain. The Shadow still is no fan of Cas, and is only willing to uphold deals with Billie, who promised to send the Shadow back to a lovely snooze if they cooperate.

The Shadow ruminates on the fact that Billie has never mentioned Cas as being essential to her plan. This makes Cas expendable.

Cas sputters to life suddenly, only to face Dean’s angry-worried greeting. “You’re an idiot, by the way!” Apparently still in pain or just suffering from almost-not-quite-dead-and-now-actually-quite-alive syndrome, Cas hauls himself up slowly and explains that he now has all the info they need to find the Occultum. “Am I still an idiot?” Listen, boys. Kiss and make up, mmkay?

They’re off to tackle the Occultum quest, but before they go they need to set out some decoys to throw Chuck off their scent if he tries to spy on the bunker. Dean suggests pulling AU Dean and Sam out of the void and setting them up as fake Sam and Dean. He flippantly suggests using Cas’s grace to power the rift this time and FOR THE LOVE OF PIZZA DEAN it’s called body autonomy.

Cut to the Winchesters Set One and Set Two seated at the map table with beers all around. We learn:

Alt Winchesters are also hunters

Their dad is alive (but still SUPER controlling)

They don’t drink beer or watch porn

Private planes fly them all over the world to fight monsters

Their AU could be a middling CW pilot about wealthy monster hunters called “Hunter Corp”

I have a greater appreciation of our flannel-clad boys

Dean and Sam clumsily explain their ploy and their relationship with God and it’s not weird at all!

Later, Team Free Will 2.0 heads to a small church. It’s guarded by a hellhound, which makes Dean SUPER happy and comfortable in his skin. They break into the church and look for clues about where the treasure is hiding. The clue is that the top of a cross points to the treasure. Moonlight streams conveniently through the window and at JUST the right angle to cast a cross of light on the floor. They pull out a little velvet bag from the floorboards.

Cas reads Enochian on the little golden snitch-style ball. “In order to be in the Occultum, the Occultum must be in you.”

Back at the bunker, Alt!Dean and Sam enjoy their new rugged life. Sam watches kitten videos, and we continue to identify very strongly with him, indeed. Alt!Dean finds porn on Dean’s computer and I continue to ask WHY WHY we have to constantly cycle back to Busty Asian Beauties. Porn isn’t objectionable, but that SPECIFIC porn franchise should have died a swift death back in season two. (Boris: AMEN)

Jack swallows the Occultum, as one does. “Spit it out,” Dean demands. But Jack disappears into a flare of light. He wakes up in a garden.

No, he wakes up in THE Garden. He’s greeted by a young girl who tells him that humans are prohibited. A snake confronts Jack. “Who are you really? Who are you meant to be?” Jack flashes through his good and bad memories and suffers an epiphany.

He flutters back into the church like Tinkerbell in a ball of light before zapping back into reality. His reappearance burns away the two hellhounds.

Back at the bunker, Dean sends the Alt Winchesters off to Brazil to enjoy the beach. He’s a little uncomfortable around them until he learns that the Alt Winchesters drove Baby. Then they get shoved out of the bunker just as fast as you please.

Once they’re gone, Cas tells Sam and Dean that Jack has returned changed. He leads them to Jack who hunches over the kitchen table. Jack is crying. He apologizes for killing Mary. He has his soul back!

“Please forgive me,” Jack whispers, and a symphonic line carries us into the black.

Overall Surprisingly Enjoyable Quotes:

The healthcare system sucks so I pick up the slack

Cas, you know what’s good about being dead?

I’m far from happy, so I should be fine

We had a good thing until he killed me

You’re gonna have to lose the man bun

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

#spn recap #spn 15x13 #destiny's child #dean winchester #sam winchester #castiel #cas #jack kline #anael #ruby #the shadow #meg masters #supernatural season 15

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naruhearts · 5 years

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14x18 First Watch Thoughts: Mary Winchester the Mirror, TFW and Destiel

**FLAILS**

My thoughts are practically incoherent because I’m having BIG FEELS right now...VERY big feels re: TFW/Destiel narratives.

I am SUPER glad Berens was the one who penned Mary’s death!! The episode was just well-done all around from start to finish and intensely executed, with the proper solid balance of angst, emotional insight from the characters placed inside Mary’s cathartic contextual role, and the consistent reiteration of Mary as TFW’s overall Parental Catharsis in 14x18′s storytelling (and S12-14′s whole parental premise in conjunction with John Winchester’s ghost).

Mary was portrayed as the singular contrasting foil to TFW’s individual and combined arcs. Absence was, obviously, a core theme, with Mary’s absence -- her death -- playing out as A. familial purpose (accountability and her death as the impetus to work together --> forgive each other, forgive yourself), B. self-purpose (self-realization via Jack: what did I do? Why did I do it? Why do we do things?), and C. romantic purpose on the Dean/Cas front.

Let me explain C. -- well, WE BEEN KNEW. The metasphere wrote about this (my post x).

Dean was HEAVILY subtextually framed as the angry spouse undergoing a rough patch with Cas over Mary’s death (the tension, juxtaposed by sad orchestral strings and soft lighting, Dean lashing out at Cas, romantic framing via Dean’s back turned to Cas, their interactions holding frustration yet still underpinned by certain tenderness etc *sighhhhh*) and Dean continuing down the route of giving Cas, not Sam, frosty shoulders -- emphasized by the romantic visual framing of space between them e.g. Sam preventing Cas from comforting Dean during Mary’s funeral, backs again facing each other, Dean and Cas interacting sparsely, Dean bitter and disengaged, Cas longing for forgiveness from Dean, Sam as the overt brother caught in the middle as he embodies the role of mediator and stable thinker for both of them etc -- just strengthens my belief that Destiel is going to experience another (hopefully) intense romance-coded confrontation as intense as the one they had in the cabin -- one that leads up to a lover’s make-up or some kind of emotional breakthrough/realization which has Cas happy enough to be taken by the Empty (remember, DEAN STILL DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT CAS’ DEAL. Cas’ life to save his son’s life, harking back to Dean’s own fatherly self-sacrificial deal by saying Yes to Michael. He is utterly unaware that he’ll lose Cas) and it’s a double punch here, because Dean will realize how stupid he is for not appreciating Cas -- more accurately, trying to be mutually transparent and honest with him (he has, though, and he’s made leaps and bounds) before it’s too late but failing (final regression before progression). He does appreciate Cas, and Cas means more to him than anyone could ever describe *points at his Mind!Bar 14x10* yet their love languages still don’t align. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO START ALL OVER AGAIN, DEAN! 14x19 is written by BL so I additionally hope the D/C subtext from this point onwards works in our favour!!

As I said in above and in my liveblog posts, a summary:

The differences in Dean’s grieving are a COMPLETE visual comparison to 12x23, complete with overhead 📸 shots and differing funeral pyre scenes: when he grieved over Cas, he was alone, kneeling on the ground, and was blatantly numb/emotionally incapacitated – Dean mourned the loss of his lover. When he’s grieving Mary, Sam is by his side. Brothers mourning the loss of their mother. Romantic vs familial.

Overt romance-coded parallels with Sam/Rowena keeping constant contact just like Dean/Cas do both offscreen and onscreen

Sam telling Dean IT WASN’T JUST CAS and his own emotional pull in this ep as expressing accountability for TFW’s actions in general – besides internalizing/talking about the self-guilt, shame, and the inevitable pain of losing people despite saving people (also re: the 🔑 theme of doing the wrong, stupid thing for the right reasons) -- was character development on a marvelous scale. Dean was enlightened and began to admit it himself. Honest, open words. Dean and Cas should learn from him!!

Cas was absolutely humanized, subsuming the Winchester Way of Bringing Family Back, and he additionally evoked honesty/an emotional justification while admitting his mistakes and again representing FAITH: faith in Jack narratively linked to FAITH IN HIMSELF and the season-long theme of believing there’s another way -- in believing that good things shall come. As he appropriately told Anael last episode -- loneliness is a construct misconstrued by her; not being in one’s physical presence doesn’t mean they aren’t there -- they are there. They are there for you. Narrative symmetry with 14x17′s presence of emotional acknowledgement despite physical absence re: God (and TFW; just because Cas wasn’t with the Winchesters did not mean he loved them any less) vs 14x18′s absence of full-frontal communication despite physical presence re: Dean and Cas/TFW (being physically present also entails being emotionally present through HONESTY). Berens interlinked the subtext. Negative spaces are being filled. And there’s also an Evil/dark dimension added to this Presence vs Absence commentary: Lucifer’s a visage in Jack’s mind, just like Sam. Jack’s soullessness has come to a psychological crux. He’s teeter-tottering – tried desperately to bring Mary back, and now he might have fucked up the natural order (if BTS pics of zombies in 14x20 is linked to this). Furthermore:

(*clutches chest* There’s the heartbreaking spousal-coded visual narrative.)

Oh, Cas...Jack is BOTH good and evil. This is the intrinsic dualism of human nature. It’s what makes Jack human. And goodness involves badness.

CAS: [Jack] was good for us. Indeed, we know he was. The unhealthily-codependent-abusive notion of family TFW used to possess (where their overarching parental issues -- Chuck’s absence, John’s abuse and Mary’s absence -- crippled their early formative growth, extending into decades) was deconstructed and rebuilt in healthier ways. Being a parent to Jack offset their true capabilities/qualities: FAITH (Cas), HOPE (Sam), and LOVE (Dean), alongside all the stickiness that came with his birth. By direct association, Cas learned (is learning) how to believe in himself. Sam learned (is learning) how to hope in himself. Dean learned (is learning) how to love himself. Mental/emotional release from their internal chains took place (will come to its final culmination in S15). In other words, Jack the Unifying TFW Mirror -- like Mary -- was the great interpersonal conduit for (a Jesus-figure-representation) honesty, appreciation (spending time with your loved ones), positive vs negative self-process, and self-awareness. Keep in mind that Jack has characteristically taken the place of Dean, Cas and Sam’s own dark arcs (Soulless!Sam, in particular) with what looks like a Godstiel mirror in 14x19 -- he’s literally becoming textualized as TFW’s mirror -- and, like his parents, he is going to make his independent (wayward) choices and question the primacy of human nature: good, evil, and the grey in-between. Will he listen to his head or his heart? Most of all, Jack taught them that HuntingTM is filled with pain, horror, and death, but genuine purpose lies beyond it. The lives they live are also innumerably interlinked with joy and happiness. These positive things aren’t as sparse as they think: they have each other.

Mary Winchester is ⚰️ and resides in Heaven (her death successfully made me emotional and packed a deep personal punch; the black and white flashbacks interspersed throughout 14x18 relative to Mary’s influence on TFW was A++). She disappeared right when TFW’s arcs came together to display character progression. Her purpose – pushing TFW to engage in self-introspection, personal growth, and honesty with the Self and others – is done.

Mary, the Cas mirror, carved M.W. into the table with S.W and D.W. You know who should be next, right? CASTIEL W. (and Jack W.) (recall that in 14x17, Mary relayed to Dean that she treasured and enjoyed her time with him and Sam -- channeling Cas’ 14x12 farewell speech. Mary has always embodied LOVE, both romantic and familial, with the great virtue of honesty, and Dean, by proxy, has been telling his family he loves them. Again, who is the next family member he’ll say I LOVE YOU to? What do Dean and Cas WANT? Time to answer this question!!)

WE HAVE COME FULL CIRCLE. Narrative cyclism, y’all. Mary and John Winchester are finally at ✌️, and by so doing, TFW will experience emotional/personal/psychological ✌️ as they leave their past behind to create their own optimistic self-actualized future. THERE’LL BE GENUINE PEACE WHEN YOU ARE DONE.

TFW MUST TALK

I mean, I’ll probably reblog this with new thoughts during the next few days, but yes, ENDGAME’S UPON US, and all the extensive meta regarding Dabb Era Love and...Love, Unity, Family, Honesty, the centrality of interpersonal relationships and Reconciliation of the Past & Future since Season New Beginnings 12/13 over Season Who Am I 14 should be realized in the final two ANGST-filled eps. TL;DR a gigantic multilayered soup of character-positive/relationship growth-positive meta coming to fruition for the main plot.

Berens has killed us all. 14x18 is one of my favourite Emotion-centric episodes yet!

RATING: 10/10

Thank you for reading my sloppier-than-usual word-vomit!

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sauntered-vaguely-downward · 5 years

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Irrational Fears. Sam Winchester x Reader

There was a reason the Winchesters kept you around. You were badass, trustworthy, intelligent beyond belief and fearless… well, they thought you were fearless but you knew otherwise.

You rounded the corner of the library, heaving the noise of the small telly. Dean was watching one of the old westerns he loved, but by the time you took a seat in between the boys, the film was drawing to a close.

“My turn to pick the next film,” Sam smiled, moving from the sofa to choose one of the videotapes in front of him. It has been a long time since you’d had a movie days with the boys so were more than happy to watch the action-filled films they were likely to pick. Sam, as usual, was taking forever to pick a film so you decided to go and get snacks from the kitchen.

When you came back Sam was placing the video in the VHS player. You settled back down in your space between the boys, snacks in your lap. Dean instantly grabbed for the bag of chips, making you chuckle. As Sam sat back down beside you, opening his arms out so you could do your usual of snuggling close to him, the film began to play. The familiar opening tune made you sit upright, a slight shudder running through you.

Now much like your boyfriend and his brother, you were a hunter. There was a reason the boys kept you around and it wasn’t just because you were a pretty face. You were fierce, smart, and hella badass. You’d gone face to face with most monsters people thought only came from their nightmares. Demons, werewolves, vampires, and even the Devil himself, just a handful of the dangerous beings you had gone face to face with and yet as the owl swooped across the screen, you couldn’t help the slight irrational fear that coursed through you.

You knew it was silly, this was technically a children's film, but you decided that your best bet was to simply snuggle into Sam, close your eyes and just listen to the film when it got to the bit you dreaded the most.

Sam felt the way you tensed as the film started. While usually yes you would snuggle close to him when you watched films, today you seemed to get considerably closer than usual, hiding your face in his chest as though you were hiding.

“I haven’t seen this film in ages,” Dean smiled. “It's such a good film. The Labyrinth is a classic.” You would disagree, mostly because this film was filled with the one thing you hated. Puppets. You hated them, everything about them freaked you out. The fake voices, the way they looked lifelike yet lacked the ability to express more than one facial expression, their beady little eyes. Puppets freaked you out since you were a child so this film was essentially a nightmare for you. However, even if the little soulless demons scared you more than they should have, you couldn’t tell Sam.

Since you had gotten together around six months ago, Sam hadn’t really seen you express any vulnerabilities. You were a badass hunter in his eyes. Sure, behind closed doors you were sweet and caring but he hadn’t ever seen you be vulnerable before. Plus, if you told Sam to turn off the film now, you wouldn’t just be telling him about your irrational fear, but also Dean, who would never let you hear the end of it, just like he did with Sams fear of clowns. So rather than bring it up you decided to just suck it up and shut your eyes for the majority of the film, starting when the creepy little goblin fucks came on to the screen.

The film played on, you enjoyed just listening but any time you opened your eyes you were met with the face of a puppet, causing you to flinch and shut your eyes again, cuddling more into Sams side. Sam, of course, noticed, Dean would have noticed too had he not fallen asleep. Sam couldn’t help but worry a little bit but when he asked if you were okay you just nodded, keeping your eyes closed.

When the film had finished you were relieved. Looking at the clock you saw it was late, so you and Sam decided to go to bed, leaving Dean snoozing softly on the sofa.

You’d put the film behind you, grateful you could just close your eyes and pretend there weren’t puppets on the screen.

Sam could still sense the slight tension as you slipped into the bed beside him, cuddling into him again. He knew you well enough to know something was wrong.

“Y/N, babe,” he sat up, pulling you with him so he could look at your face. “Why did you have your eyes shut during the film? Did you not enjoy it?”

“Oh no, it's not that,” you mumbled. Clearly, you hadn’t been as discreet about blocking out the film as you thought.

“Was it David Bowie’s bulge? I can understand why you wouldn’t wanna look at that,” he chuckled a deep chesty chuckle. You couldn’t help but giggle. Sam had a way of making you smile even when you didn’t want too. You sighed, taking a deep breath before muttering out,

“Ihaveafearofpuppets.” You said it so quickly Sam didn’t quite catch it.

“What did you say, babe?”

“I have a fear of puppets,” you mumbled again, just a little louder this time so he could hear it. Sam was honestly a little stunned by this. Sam hadn’t ever seen you show fear, not even the toughest cases you worked, so for you to tell him you had a fear of something like this was very surprising to hear.

You couldn’t help but feel a little bit embarrassed by this, especially seeing the look of shock on his face.

“Why didn’t you say, baby?” Sam could see the embarrassment along your cheeks so pulled you in for a hug. “We could have picked something else.” “Dean was there, and come on, he's a bit of a dick when it comes to other peoples weaknesses,” Sam laughed, his chest jumping making your head bounce.

“That’s true. Why didn’t you tell me this before babe, had I known I would have never put the film on.”

“Because I’m a hunter. We’re not meant to have silly little fears like that.”

“I’m scared of clowns.” “Yeah, but a clown could actually kill you.”

“Thanks babe, lovely reminder of why I fear them,” he chuckled.

“Sorry,” you giggled back, “but you know what I mean. Clowns are alive, all things alive have the potential to be dangerous. Puppets on the other hand, well they can’t do anything to me so it’s kind of stupid to fear them.” Sam placed a gentle kiss on your lips, pulling you closer.

“Babe, sometimes fears aren’t rational, but that doesn’t mean you can’t fear them,” he smiled, pulling back and taking your cheeks in his hands. “Thank you for telling me this, because now I can protect you from the puppets.”

“And I'll protect you from the clowns,” you pulled him back in for a kiss, gently tugging him down to lay with you in the bed. Even if at that moment when you told him you had felt more vulnerable than ever, you had to admit it was nice opening up to him, especially knowing that he would protect you if you ever did come head to head with one of the fuzzy bastards.

So this fic is one that I thought of not long ago.

I have a fear of puppets so I thought I’d make a fluffy fic about it. (Please don’t judge me, also the muppets and sesame street are fine its just every other puppet that freaks me out, in particular, Bagpuss). I have plenty of irrational fears (this being the worst one) but here are a couple other silly fears I have alongside the puppets.

Rats/Mice in any form of animation (the mice in Coraline or the rat king in Hilda are perfect examples of this irrational fear of mine. THE WORST ARE THE SINGING MICE IN BAGPUSS BECAUSE THEY FREAKY FUCKS AND PUPPETS)

Stop motion animation films, particularly if they involve clay (I can't watch Coraline or nightmare before Christmas because they literally fill me with so much dread I feel like I need to die)

Last weird one I will share with you is my fear of windows at night... this came from a scary story I read online one where someone said they saw a face behind them in the window... now I'm scared of dark windows. Also mirrors at night.

ANYWAY BACK TO BEING A NORMAL PERSON I HOPE YOU LIKED MY FIC AND WON’T JUDGE ME TO HARD FOR BEING SCARED OF SO MANY THINGS!!!!

#Sam #sam winchester #sam x reader #sam winchester x reader #supernatural #supernatural fanfiction #supernatural x reader #supernatural fan fic #supernatual reader insert #supernatural fanfic #reader #reader insert #dean #dean winchester #dean x reader #dean winchester x reader

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somegremlin-archive2 · 5 years

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★ ༺ HC - Emotional Trauma regarding Dazai ༻ ★

「 ★ 」 ⋮ ＡＮＡＴＨＥＭＡ． ⋮ ━━ Yumeno’s feelings towards Dazai are incredibly complicated and the trauma that Dazai caused to them are practically impossible to move on from; ESPECIALLY in their current circumstances.

In being handed over to the Port Mafia by the government, Dazai was the first person that Yumeno met ( the second being mori ). With the abuse that had been inflicted onto them the past few years of their life, Dazai was quite literally the first person to show Yumeno any shred of kindness. With Chuuya mainly being around Kouyou, Yumeno mainly grew up alongside Dazai.

As Dazai was the first person to ACTUALLY show Yumeno kindness, Yumeno became extremely attached. It was to be EXPECTED from a small child; especially when there weren’t really any other children ( aside from Elise ) in the Port Mafia. The two of them were practically INSEPARABLE and Yumeno quite frankly idolized Dazai. Heck, Yumeno even put a bandage around their doll’s head to imitate how Dazai looks.

That is, until the ABUSE started.

In the Port Mafia, there was no time for something as fickle as family and friends. No, it was kill or be killed. And it was FRIGHTENING how quickly and how easily Dazai adjusted to that sort of life and how willing he was to spread that sickening philosophy to those around him. Many a person fell victim to Dazai’s grotesque and horrific training methods and his verbal and psychological abuse … and of course, even Yumeno was no different.

Sure, Yumeno might have learned some things … but was it really worth the extensive abuse and trauma to a CHILD ?

To the Port Mafia and to Dazai, it was.

And the problem with Yumeno was … it didn’t matter what happened. It didn’t matter if they were left shaking, bruised, bloody, beaten, and crying. It didn’t matter how Dazai treated them. Because ’ Dazai - niichan ’ was their big brother that LOVED them and they LOVED dear ’ Dazai - niichan ’, right ?

It wasn’t until later years, it wasn’t towards the end that Yumeno began to have their doubts. Did Dazai - niichan REALLY love them ? Was that monster that hurt them and beat them up and made them cry REALLY Dazai - niichan ?

But even then, Yumeno tried to push those so - called intrusive feelings behind and tried to rationalize it that it must have been THEM in the wrong. That they had to get used to the Port Mafia life and that in reality, THEY were the ones disappointing Dazai - niichan.

And then … it happened.

Dazai - san and Mori - san only looked on; sick and twisted expressions as they watched the child get beaten down. No matter what Yumeno did, they were HELPLESS to the abuse of mafiosos. But as the soulless eyes of the Port Mafia’s boss looked down upon him, the child could only stare in HORROR before the man would hit him and Dazai - niichan would watch in amusement.

They just felt this OVERWHELMING feeling that this was how they’ve been treated their entire life. That all their life, they’d been nothing but a TOY for people’s amusement. That all their life, people only wanted to make them SUFFER. Dazai - niichan should have cared about them. Dazai - niichan should have loved them ! Why had things gone so WRONG ? ! Why did the entire world HATE them ? !

THEY HAD ENOUGH.

When they finally, FINALLY realized that the treatment they had endured for so long was WRONG, they inadvertently unleashed that cursed, dangerous ability they didn’t even realize they had in an effort to PROTECT THEMSELVES.

They were TERRIFIED of the power they held … and yet, they couldn’t feel sorry for those that had hurt them for so many years. All they did was try to keep those HORRIBLE people away from them !

But guess WHO robbed them of their ability to protect themselves ?

Guess who sentenced them down to literal HELL ?

DAZAI.

Even after the incident, the abuse continued; except this time, Dazai was not only hurting them, a single touch was ENOUGH to render them completely vulnerable to the abuse. And when it was done … they were left alone in the jail cell.

In an environment that’s as cold and isolating and mind numbing as a JAIL CELL, there’s nothing to do but to dwell on the abuse and how awful you were treated. There’s nothing you CAN do but to be angry and to be hurt and to let it replay again and again and again and again and AGAIN AND AGAIN

And yet, there is also fixation on the good times, those times when they were young and when they were able to cling to dear ’ Dazai - niisan ’ and feel safe and secure. With such two conflicting traumas in your head, you can only let it ravage your mind as you think

WHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHYWHY ? !

In the present day, Yumeno does DEFINITELY hate Dazai. Yumeno does want Dazai DEAD for all the trauma and all the pain that he inflicted. And yet, there’s also mental and emotional conflict deep in their soul. A part of them that they consider ’ twisted and messed up ’ and that they wish they could just rip out of their mind STILL CARES about Dazai and would most certainly eat up ANY praise Dazai gave them.

tldr, it’s kind of like akutgawa’s mindset but worse.

#abuse tw #child abuse tw #╰ (✪∀<) ~★ ﾟ * it hurts to be forced to feel the heart's break. ┆ 𝐇𝐂.#// this is p much one of my most fucked up headcanons #// it was on my old blog but here it is again with tiny adjustments !

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