#But WOW did this episode cement that

[actuallyjustabiscuit]

RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST RAGATHA IS THE CUTEST

I LOVE HER SO FUCKING MUCH HOLY SHIT!

[starry-bi-sky]

I am absolutely loving your Danyal Al Ghul au. While I have a soft spot for the whole plotline of Danny becoming his canon personality almost right after breaking away from the LOA all because of Jazz, I'm just as much for your take in which he goes through the same character development as Damian.

Now I'm curious. You already tackled his relationship with Dani, will you eventually take a stab at when he, Sam, and Tucker meet Gregor? Given that it's one of my hated episodes as I couldn't stand Sam's infuriatingly hypocritical attitude to Danny's suspicions of him, I'd kill to see your spin on it.

Aw, thank you! Danyal Al Ghul aus are what got me into DPDC first, so I have a major soft spot for them. That being said, uh, its exactly that soft spot that causes me to have Many Opinions about the trope you just mentioned. Like the trope is all fine and dandy, i don't blindly hate it, my main issue with it is that most aus i've seen treat his backstory as an ex-assassin more like a pretty cosmetic accessory rather than something that actually should have had an impact on him. Especially if he remembers being in the league.

Like i cannot stress enough the fact that being in an ecofascist assassin cult (regardless of his standing in it) should've left him, in some way or another, screwed up morally and psychologically because that's just how development works. Nature vs. Nurture is like a game of tug-o-war that never ends, where they are constantly fighting against each other and one side usually has the upper hand or greater influence. Children model the behaviors of the adults around them (ex: bobo the clown doll experiment), and what impacts them in childhood can stick with them permanently.

Like how my psychology professor put it: a baby's brain is like wet cement; if you slap your hand on it, it leaves an imprint, and the cement dries that way. The same rings true for small children.

I could go on, but I frankly have so many thoughts on that alone that I would end up completely derailing from the second half of your ask, and I don't want to be more critical than I already have. Especially since you just mentioned you have a soft spot for the trope.

[Okay, hold onto your hats because this is long. Naturally lmao.]

Gregor! Man, I'll admit I last watched the show back in middle school on a dodgy illegal website (it had surprisingly good audio and visual graphics, and full episodes. But really annoying porn ads.) but I only made it to like season 1 before my hyperfixation faded and I lost interest. So I never actually saw the Gregor episode.

But... it is relatively easy to find free websites that stream Danny Phantom :), so finding the episode took me like. Thirty seconds. Plus the Tv.Tropes recap page because my damn earbuds just died and im out in public as of rn.

I'm not sure if I'll write something for the gregor episode like I did with Dani, since Dani's a bit of a special case in that she's a clone and tends to be a reoccurring presence in DPDC, and I thought the new dynamic with Danyal would be interesting.

Plus, I'm not a big amethyst ocean shipper for the pure reason of I'm just not all that interested in it; its kinda bland to me. I'll admit I've entertained the thought in this au due to the whole balcony scene i wrote, but I would've entertained the thought anyways if it was Tucker in that position instead. Big multishipper, me.

But, if I had to make it official? Danyal is not interested romantically in Sam when the Gregor episode happens, regardless of his relationship with Valerie. Who, speaking of I'm trying to think about how that would go, and I'm torn between including him almost-dating Valerie or not.

Because on one hand it helps point out Sam's hypocrisy (and i love her but i am always happy to point out her flaws and address them in au) in this episode in terms of Danny spying on them, but on the other hand I'll want to include a lot of set up in order to make Gray Ghost work in this au and wow will that take a while.

Especially with the Flirting with Disaster episode because it happens due to Technus' meddling, and Danny is, well, the son of the Batman? A trained assassin? An ex-assassin nonetheless, but still an assassin? A prodigy child in this au? He might not have needed to use most of his skills in the last few years, but like... there's just a bunch of 'what if' and 'well technically...' and 'would he? he could, but would he?' things that is getting in the way of my thought process and making my head spin.

.

Mmm. Okay. Flirting with Disaster occurs relatively the same as canon with a few exceptions; like Danyal noticing the strange coincidences, and he might take the idea into proper consideration because Sam has a point it is strange, especially out of nowhere.

However,,, he really enjoys Valerie's company, and he does really like her. He's been adjusting to civilian life for the last four years and while he's made a lot of progress, he's still. an ex-assassin child living like a wolf amongst sheep. This is normal, typical teenager stuff, and usually his friends like to encourage him doing normal teenager stuff.

So he's stubbornly holding out on the thought that this is normal, that ghost stuff isn't interfering here. He's a little hurt that his friends are discouraging this, he's not bothered by the fact that Valerie is a ghost hunter and he a ghost -- his mother is an assassin, and his father is Batman, and they still had a relationship. (Granted, he's not gonna tell them that)

If anything, being diametrically opposed to each other but still being in love is part of the family! Granted, usually both parties are aware of said opposition to each other, but he'll make a special exception this time around.

(And man now that i'm thinking about gray ghost, im now thinking about various like. scenes i could write between the two of them. maybe in a reblog.)

Anyways uhhh things relatively go the same as canon. Yeah. I think Sam still has a crush on Danny and still spies out of jealousy with Tucker.

.

Now, the Gregor episode! With that out of the way; the TVTropes recap for this episode isn't the best because it doesn't go into detail about the entire episode like it does with Flirting With Disaster and Shades of Gray.

(which i looked at earlier because I made a section of this post talking briefly about what changes I'd make to the Shades of Gray episode to help set up Gray Ghost, but ended up deleting because it was kinda irrelevant for the matter at hand.)

So I'm taking in bits of the episode clips at a time, I'll try not to get too nitpicky about how each scene goes because then it's gonna take me a longer time to write this.

But! First thing's first; since Danny is not romantically interested in Sam, he is also not jealous of Gregor. He is however, a bit eyebrow-raisey at him in their first introduction, but that's because Gregor is coming off as obnoxious.

Danny thinks he's kinda annoying, and it doesn't take a genius to see that Gregor is trying to impress Sam. But since they've only known him for five minutes he takes the good faith assumption and assumes that Gregor is genuinely trying to show interest in Sam's interests too because he likes her, so he keeps mum. The fake hungarian accent is weird, but it's overall harmless, so he doesn't point it out.

He does do the spying thing when he starts suspecting that Gregor might be working for the GIW. The episode only has this happen twice, but for the au this happens a handful of more times over the course of the week, with Danyal's suspicion steadily rising more and more each time.

Hah, when he brings up wanting to spy on Sam and Gregor because of this reason, Tucker still does his "woah! you wanna spy on Sam?" thing.

Danny immediately turns to him, completely unimpressed, and crosses his arms. "Tucker," he says, deadpan, "you and Sam spied on me and Valerie."

He uses a combination of his ghost powers and his regular stealth ability to spy on them. He's hiding in a tree when they're skipping rocks, close enough that he can use his powers to hear them talk but far enough away that he has a good view of their surroundings.

He's invisible in the cinema, but doesn't accidentally get in front of the projector. He checks the inside of the room for the GIW, and then waits outside the actual room itself, keeping an eye on the area and occasionally flying in to watch the movie out of boredom. It reminds him of being back on a recon mission with the League, but it doesn't end with him orchestrating someone's death.

Then when they're at the mall he stays in human form, blending in with the crowd. He runs into the GIW there, but realizes that they're not there because of Gregor; they're just shopping. They didn't show up at either of the last two locations, and he follows them to make sure they're not also trying to blend in. But they're literally just there for shopping.

Danny is rather pleased with this turnout; so far Gregor isn't a spy, he's just annoying. The next day at lunch he asks Sam how her date with Gregor went, and that's how she figures out he spied on them, because well, she didn't tell him that.

"Have you been spying on me?"

Danny messes with his food a little bit, and Tucker is sinking into his seat with embarrassment. He frowns, "Only last night. Those incompetent government dodos--"

His lip curls up; he gets all 'Shakespeare-y' (as Sam and Tucker put it) when he's insulting someone, "--kept appearing whenever Gregor did. I followed you and him last night to make sure he wasn't a spy."

A roundabout way of saying, "I was worried".

Sam is, as canon, furious. Danny understands why, he knows generally speaking that people don't like being spied on. But he's confused on just how angry she is, and is a little irritated by it.

"Why would you do that!" She exclaims, "That's way out of line, Danny."

"How? You spied on me when I was going on dates with Valerie." He narrows his eyes, and points his fork at her, "I'm not blind, I noticed."

"That's different, we told you why we were suspicious. And we don't have ghost powers like you do."

"I don't need ghost powers to sneak around, Sam, you've seen this firsthand. And I just told you why I followed you, I thought he was working with the guys in white--"

"So you think someone can only be interested in me if they're after you?" (this is a paraphrased quote, folks ;D)

"No! If that was the case I would have voiced my concern the moment I thought it. I don't get why you're so angry, you spied too."

Iiits.... a mess. Sam storms off with Gregor, Tucker tags along because okay, yeah, maybe Gregor isn't with the GIW, or maybe last night was a fluke. Either way he ends up tagging along. Danny overhears that conversation between the GIW and Mr. Lancer, and maybe he's right, maybe he's wrong; but something is up.

I've gotten to that scene in the locker room where Gregor tells Danny that he knows he doesn't like him, and I've paused at Danny's reply to say this: Danyal doesn't even bother trying to deny it.

"I know you do not like me."

"You're right; I don't."

"Ah, let me finish. I know you do not like me because you want to protect your friend, Sam, and I respect that."

"...That's correct."

"Good! Because I am going to ask her out."

"I had a feeling you'd say that," he stands up, claps his hand tight on Gregor's shoulder, and leans close to him with a threatening smile, "so you understand me when i say; if you break my best friend's heart, you're as good as dead, right?"

"Ah,, yes. I am so glad we got that cleared out of the way, and now I hope after we can.. how you Americans put it, hang out?"

In the episode he hugs Danny and gives him a la bise (which is that french greeting where you kiss someone on the cheek two or more times) after they end their conversation. But here, when he goes to do that to Danyal, Danny leans away, points an accusatory finger at him, and says; "Absolutely not; we are not close."

The next scene after that is like, end of day. Sam, Tucker, and Gregor walking away. Sam looks over her shoulder to glare at Danny, then gets forlorn. Tucker looks back and just looks forlorn.

(When did I start narrating each scene?? Eh, I'm writing this in brief spurts of time throughout the day. Don't fix what's not broke)

After that there's this whole scene with the two GIW agents that have been chasing Phantom all episode. They're there because they have Tucker's PDA that Skulker took, and it's got the information of their purple backed gorilla assignment on it. They've been going around seeing who Tucker associates with in hopes of catching Phantom.

Uhh ahaha and that is where this gets a little interesting imo, and also allows me to mention that im retconning Danyal's (already) redesigned ghost form. Which I've wanted to retcon even before this moment bc it was just too busy. I'll get to that in a moment.

The GIW suspect Gregor for being the Phantom because of his white hair and green eyes, which is all fine and dandy until you remember: Danyal (and by extension Phantom) has that very noticeable, rather identifiable facial scar that goes across the middle of his fucking face. The GIW could easily suspect that Phantom hides his scar with makeup if he's in disguise, but if they meet a kid with a seemingly identical facial scar and similar disposition? Hoo boy.

Solution? I've got two: Gregor is canonically a kid from Michigan who faked everything to impress Sam. Considering he knows she's gothic and knows that she's ultra-recyclo vegetarian? He probably watched her from afar or got information on her somehow. His hair is dyed, his eyes might just naturally be green, but if he notices that she's got a crush on either Danyal or Phantom? A little sfx makeup could help him recreate a similar looking scar.

My second solution that's gonna happen anyways bc its that suit redesign; Danyal does hide his face as Phantom. Ghosts are emotional creatures and its a popular headcanon that their interests, ambitions, etc, influence the way they look as a ghost, not just their death. A big reoccurring theme of my au is that Danyal did not leave the League unscathed, and that being an assassin is an important part of his identity.

So i'm discarding the hazmat suit look entirely and leaning into the 'assassin' thing. But the general (stylized) feel is like, white ribbon/cloth vambraces that he has used as a garrote at some point, a hood, a gaiter scarf-type thing. I'm keeping the cape. I did a doodle a few days back that's not the official redesign, but a redesign for Phantom. I may reblog this post with that attached because it's got the general feel down. There's very little white involved, but the inside of his cape flares out and looks like the night sky.

Now, the hood and gaiter scarf gets rid of most of the problem, but Danny's hood doesn't stay on all the time, so the GIW have likely seen the upper half of the scar. :] Gregor's own drawn-on scar doesn't have to be 1:1, but it looks close enough, right? A small scar cutting through the edge of his brow and ends right below the corner of his eye. A 'cool, badass' one opposed to Danny's 'garish' scar.

But! Back to the episode scene. Canon Danny gets written off as being 'too prepubescent' to be Phantom, and honestly it'd be hilarious if Danyal was written off for the same reason (he's calling them idiots in his head if they do). But instead -- leaning into the GIW's incompetence here -- he gets written off as being too mature or too talkative. Or something equally as absurd.

Sam breaks up with Gregor for canon reasons, but when Gregor does his "i really like you, but, come on-!" and gestures to tucker, he adds on "and that scary friend of yours too, seriously!"

Things go relatively the same as canon after that. Danny does end up apologizing for spying, however. Sam does it first. Sorrows, prayers, all that.

.

Things usually end up changed or different when I actually write it down, so I'd likely add more or adjust different scenes according to the flow of the oneshot. This is just like, a general vibe of how things would go, and where some of the more obvious changes would be if I did write this oneshot.

Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for the ask :]

[ckret2]

i know you’ve talked about bill’s music tastes before, but do you have any head cannons for other characters’ music tastes?

i.e. do you think mabel would listen to vocaloid?

Mabel: here's what we know about her tastes.

She loves Dream Boy High; Dream Boy High's VCR tape design has nods to Jem & the Holograms, which has a million songs per episodes; Mabel has Xyler & Craz play synth music to defeat Bill; Mabeland plays 80's music. She's into extremely 80's-sounding synth-heavy pop. The music she plays in dream realms is the music closest to her heart. This is the core of her musical tastes.

There's something subtly, inexplicably different about music made for cartoons vs contemporary popular music, even when they're trying to portray the same genres. I can't describe what that quality is, but it's there. Anyway, if the core of Mabel's musical tastes is rooted in or near Dream Boy High, then she probably listens to other 80s cartoon soundtracks.

She's into 2010s acts that are throwbacks to late-1990s boy bands. She'd probably also like actual 90s boy bands.

She's fluent in modern top 40 music—which is no doubt where she she picked up Sev'ral Timez. I see her as the kind of kid who just keeps the radio on all the time. (And I do mean the radio—she didn't get a phone til the end of last summer, we see her with CDs, she probably had a radio long before she tried streaming.)

She's also fluent in classic rock ballads, but it's not her preference. She's a "grew up listening to the radio stations her parents picked on a car ride" kid. I suspect her dad plays 70s/80s pop in the car (cementing her primary musical tastes) because there's another Pines into synth pop so I've decided it's genetic, and her mom plays the classic rock. Mabel knows Don't Start Unbelieving from Mabel & Mom karaoke nights.

Dipper: if Mabel grew up listening to her parents' picks on the car radio, so did he. This is where he picked up his love for BABBA. From this we can deduce that, if their dad is the 70s/80s pop music parent, their dad probably drives them around more than their mom. I think you could safely give him other disco bands as well.

He plays the sousaphone but every band kid I've ever known treats band more like a musical sport than like a musical genre—the super passionate ones might practice extra and might watch other bands' performances, but they didn't just sit around listening to marching band music for fun. However, he also practices during the summer, even though he's in another state and obviously not participating in any summer band activities, which suggests an unusual passion for marching band. I still don't think he just listens to marching band music for fun but he probably keeps hearing songs and going "oh wow I've never heard the original before, only the band version."

He picked up a couple of indie folk bands to try to impress Wendy but he's not super into them.

Ford: He was on the absolute cutting edge of new wave & synth pop in the 80s. He was into the obscure stuff. Somewhere in the shack is a pile of cassettes by new wave acts the rest of the world has completely forgotten. He and Mabel trade music recommendations: he gives her the obscure as hell stuff and she tells him about all the cool new* (*post-1982) bands he never got to see. Mabel prefers peppier songs and he prefers moodier songs but there's a HUGE overlap between their tastes.

In a better, portal-less world, Ford's taste in new wave would have had time to drift into dark wave and cold wave, and from there slid over sideways to discover goth rock. There's an unhatched trad goth somewhere in his soul. He should have been listening to Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, and The Cure. He should have gotten a black trench coat because he thought it would make him feel cool, not because he was an interdimensional criminal on the run. It's not too late for him to discover it now, but by now he should have made it miles beyond the major 80s goth rock acts, gone down half a dozen increasingly obscure genre alleys, and be burrowed deep into some weird sub-sub-sub-genre of EBM you and I have never heard of.

He has a love/hate relationship with All Star.

Stan: He liked hanging out at a 50s-themed diner in the 70s. He likes 50s music. I also think he picked up a fair amount of Spanish-language 50s rock-and-roll while abroad. Once like five years ago Soos overheard Stan playing a record and singing a song Abuelita plays and it cemented his ambition to reverse-adopt Stan as his dad.

Soos: Popular hip hop and anime/video game soundtracks. Every rap song he knows has been on the Billboard Hot 100 but on the other hand he has the demo version of the extended version of the ending theme of an anime from 2001 that was never fully released outside Japan and he's probably got a fifteen-minute story about why he knows this song even exists. He's puzzled through the shipping info of a Japanese CD website to get the official soundtrack of the most dogshit anime you could imagine. He's spent a week pouring through anime convention forums trying to track down a song he overheard someone use as their background music at a cosplay contest. Lots of 8-bit.

Wendy: You know the stomp clap hey genre? That. I have nothing further to add, you know what I'm talking about. Her heart yearns to escape to hipster city. She didn't even like Robbie's music when they were dating, she just thought it was cool he made it.

I'm not gonna go through every character I have headcanons for, you don't need all that on one post. Anyway, have a work in progress playlist. It's rigorously organized. "😀😀😀 Character Name 😀😀😀" is what each character would like listening to, "😀 Zodiac Symbol 😀" is songs about each character, "🪐🪐🪐 Flatland 🪐🪐🪐" is backstory stuff, "🌎 Earth 🌎" is either songs I need on this playlist for the vibes or songs that belong in one of the other categories but I haven't sorted them yet. Some of the sections are still empty. I think this is forgivable since the playlist is already 11 hours long.

[starofhisheart]

Sooooo episode 5, huh........

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE SEASON 2 EPISODE 5 under the cut

Wow. What breathtaking acting from Assad, Jacob, Eric & Luke. Assad in particular had me captivated. The uncomfortable but graceful otherworldliness he exuded was incredible to watch. I asked for psychosexual torture for devil's minion and that's exactly what I got. Armand, angry but sexy, torturing and controlling Daniel for DAYS. Being so kind to his victim he becomes like a god in Daniel's eyes. The "teach me to be fascinating like you"!! The dropping to the knees part!!! Daniel talking back and resisting Armand's compulsion. God, such good food.

But what I didnt expect was being moved by Louis and Daniel's friendship. How Louis' words stayed with him throughout his entire life, pulling him back from the edge over and over again. Their flirty, casual comraderie in 73' and their burgeoning alliance in the present. They're the friendship i didnt know i needef but im so glad i have.

So.e moments that made me insane in bullet point form cause im lazy:

Armand mind linking to Lestat but not relaying his desperate "i love you's" to Louis

Daniel casually offering sex to Louis and present Daniel like "Did we...?" asdfghkl

Louis shit talking Lestat in the interview and Daniel hyping him up like they're drunk girls in the pub bathroom vs finding out he was doing that so Lestat would read the book and come find him (he doesnt know he's still trapped by Armand probably 😭😭)

The line Louis said at the beginning of the episode being said by Armand at the end, cementing how much Armand has played with Louis' mind

Armand revealing a piece of his past to young Daniel and then seeing him visually switching back to the kind killer (Assad when i find you!!!!)

Confirmed bisexual Daniel

Armand basically telling Daniel exactly what his life will be like and it being accurate 😭

Louis thinking he hears Claudia and immediately running into the sunlight

Thoughts:

So here's how the Alice theory could still work asdfhhkl lol no but seriously I think Armand, like in the books, stalks Daniel throughout his life and perhaps even interacts with him at different points. A cat and mouse chase, per say. This theory of mine is flimsy cause if this were true old Daniel would have had flashbacks & Armand could have just looked into Daniel's past with his powers. But what gives me hope about this theory is that interaction in a previous episode when Louis is cajoling Daniel & Armand tries to softwn the blows with "she wanted to say yes...but you hadn't given her a reason to" and also this:

I very much hope these devils minion seeds they've planted bear fruits, maybe not in this season but in the coming seasons. Surely there's more to their story...

But anyway, the show continues to blow me away each week and I am so sad we are nearing the season finale. I want a million seasons of this. Every Vampire Chronicles book adapted. Truly outstanding performances, writing, direction-everything!

[spaceorphan18]

Ahh, I didn't know you liked Bridgerton! (I was away from tumblr for a moment and just now catching up on your blog) I'm obsessed with Penelope and Colin. How did you like season 3? I always love reading your thoughts! I saw so many people complain but I mostly really enjoyed it. I wish it didn't have so many random plotlines, and I didn't like the insta-baby but overall they're my favourite couple in the show haha.

Hi Nonny! Welcome back to the Tumblr! <3

I hope you don't mind me indulging a little with your ask, lol. If you've followed me for any length of time, you do know I can't shut up - but I realized I haven't really said my actual thoughts on the season, etc, I just started meta'ing and haven't looked back. So, pull up a chair, Nonny, as I chatter non-stop for a bit about Bridgerton and my thoughts on season 3, lol.

I'll put it under a cut to save the rest of your souls....

Part 1: How did we get here?

Am I big fan of historical romance? No, not really. Did I expect this show to ever have a grip on me? Not even a little bit. How in the world did this happen? Idk - it appears that favorite tropes and character designs and dynamics seem to transcend genre. And I'm an old sap.

The tl:dr version is that I watched Seasons 1 and 2 after Season 2 came out. It was fine. Not a huge fan of Season 1, I did like Season 2 though. And then kind of forgot it existed. Eloise was by far my favorite character - because I liked her spunk. And the friendship between Eloise and Penelope was the best part of the show.

And then I was reminded that Season 3 dropped and did not expect the shock that I got. I went in completely blind - I hadn't seen a single promo. I did know, because I looked up the books when I originally watched, that it would be Pen and Colin's story. But I was kind of fascinated at how they were going to go about it. Penelope was not a stereotypical leading lady. And Colin was very boy-ish looking in the early seasons. How was this going to work?

Oh man, the glow ups. The glow ups got me. Pen is so, so gorgeous this entire season. When she's wearing her hair down, omg... Or that one look where she's like a housewife writing in her journal. God damn, girl. She can get it. And then Colin... ha. When he got out of the carriage, I was like - oh shit. It was the pirate coat. A good pirate coat will always do me in.

But more than that - really, the dynamics of the characters just really sold me. I love friends to lovers. I love the angst and the pull. I love the whole she fell first he fell harder. I love that I unintentionally just go for the same kind of characters and their dynamics over and over and over.

And then, you know, between the first part and second part, I rewatched the first two seasons, which was helpful. (Though, still not a huge fan of season 1.) Was addicted to the promo tour (my god I love a good promo tour). And @ckerouac - got me to watch Derry Girls which really cemented my love of Nicola Coughlin. And, you know, once you start going down a hole, you just have to keep on going until you get to the other side.

Idk how we really got here, Nonny, but here we are! Lol

Part 2: My thoughts on Season 3

So, briefly, I just fell in love with Part 1 right off the bat. LOVED IT. Part 2, honestly, I felt disappointed after seeing it the first time. (I remember episode 6, in particular, thinking - wow that was not a very good episode).

And then... I rewatched it and then rewatched it again after watching Seasons 1 and 2 and kind of started to take it a part a bit, and it's grown on me. A lot! I actually do really love the season as a whole and appreciate what we've got...

Breaking it down a little more:

Pen and Colin's story: I still do think the first half is stronger. The whole Colin helping Pen find a husband, Lord Debling (who is a doll), Colin figuring out his issues, that carriage scene... ooff, all really, really good. The second half - there just needed to be more. At first, it was hard to watch them go through a wedding while being mad at each other, but I feel like now that I've had time to digest it all, it is /so/ good. It's a really, really fascinating dynamic going on there. I could and probably will go on at length about it later... a couple of things, though

They just needed more. The plot was so delicious. I did love the conflict over lady whistledown and I wish we had seen that tension played out better and resolved better. The end of episode 8 was a bit to fast. I swear - Season 4 better have some solidly good Polin moments or idek... They've been such a big part of the show as a whole, I hope they get to continue their development, even if it they go back to their Seasons 1 and 2 focus.

The season works better if you remember what happened in seasons 1 and 2. I had zero memory of the plots from the first two seasons going in. I didn't realize Colin's personality had changed. I couldn't remember any of the Polin moments in the first two seasons. This third season makes a whole lot more sense being built from what came before it, and honestly, I kind of love that. It makes the story more layered and engaging.

As for the insta-baby, I mean, they set it up at the beginning of the season, but it wasn't something I needed to enjoy the couple. I do wonder if they'll go back and explore that 9 months, or if things will pick up after post-baby.

Also, on perhaps a shallower note? I thought the actors had great chemistry. And I have so much respect for Nicola Coughlin for allowing herself to be presented in such a way. She is GORGEOUS in every aspect and the backlash over her body is ABSURD. If you can’t get on board that a larger woman can be seen as desirable than you can fuck right off because she is amazing.

Poor Luke Newton has gotten some push back, too, which I think is a little unfair. He's not expressive the way Jonny Bailey is, but Colin really isn't Anthony, and is much more an inward character. And the awkwardness of his attempt at rake-ishness in the beginning is supposed to be awkward. Colin isn't smoldering like the Duke from Season 1, either. He's a sweet, romantic kid who adores his bff-turned-wife, and the whole season (I mean, can we talk about the all the mirrors?) is about cutting through the bullshit we do to try to mask who we really are.

The thing about Luke Newton that I really appreciate is that he really understands who his character is and keeps that front and center. Colin is trying to be something he's not, and the real Colin slips out unintendedly, and that kind of subtly is hard to play.

The absolute best moments were when they laughed together - they both really shine when Pen and Colin are allowed to be the sweet friends they've been all along.

Anyway tl:dr - loved their relationship, and my heart will just be broken if we don't get more good development as the seasons continue.

Penelope and Eloise: The fact that this relationship was angled as another romance per se was also delicious. As I said above - Pen and Eloise were probably my favorite dynamic pre-Polin and it was devastating to watch them work their relationship out. But again, it was all so delicious. I loved it and thought it was perfect.

The Featheringtons: I LOVED THEM! They were perfection. I love that they leaned into some really good comedy with the sisters. Not only were they able to show off Nicola's excellent comedic skills, the family as a whole was just a whole delight. I loved the sisters. I loved their husbands. I even liked Portia - and, honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of her in earlier seasons. I loved that they linked Pen and Portia, it really made them seem like mother and daughter.

Colin and his family: There were some fascinating dynamics!

Colin and Eloise: yes, the third part of the platonic love triangle I loved their dynamic during the season. Eloise never really knowing how to handle Colin. The fact that they're close and yet awkwardly so. The fact that they both care so much about Pen in different ways and how LW just hangs over both dynamics. Ooff, so good.

Colin and Anthony & Benedict (and let's throw George in here, too): Love it. Wish there had been more. The brothers are hilarious and wonderful together and just I ate it all up with a spoon. Also, as an aside, I love that George is slowly coming into focus. The kid is adorable.

Colin and Francesca (and let's throw Hyacinth in here, too): Hilariously, Colin and Francesca speak zero times to each other during the whole season. Isn't that weird? Really, their plot lines do not intersect except tangentially for family moments. It's so weird. I feel like I have no sense of this dynamic. As for Hyacinth - I adore her, and I feel like she has more personality than Francesca :P

Colin and Violet: I kind of loved this. She's a mother who understands her kids. And even though Violet wasn't around that much for the A-Plot, I like what role she did have to play in getting Colin to act.

Alright, so the rest of the subplots... It did feel like an abundance of them, but was there really more than previous seasons? Or was it the fact that Pen and Colin usually were subplots, and now that they're the main focus, everything else kind of shifts awkwardly around them?

Anthony and Kate: I love them to pieces, and wish there had been more of them. Their dynamic remains sexy and smart. Kate remains one of the best characters on the show, and is such an intelligent woman. I'm so glad she had wonderful, insightful conversations with her new family. I really would have loved to have had a Kate and Penelope scene. Also, the India thing was awkward - I lol'd because it clearly was written as an 'out' for the couple. But it's ultimately fine. But yes - bring back Kanthony in future seasons. I really don't care how much Jonathan Bailey is doing other things.

Cressida Cowper: I thought she was a fantastic villain, and the fact that she was so wrapped up with Eloise was kind of delicious. I don't think they needed to linger on her private life as much as they did. But I was fascinated that there seemed to be some queer coding in there, and wondered, for a bit if she was going to be a lesbian. I also think her ending was a little weak and she just kind of scampered off without any reprieve. I do wonder if she'll be back, tbh.

Francesca: Oof. It was intriguing on first watch but I find it incredibly dragging on subsequent watches and have a tendency to skip over it. I think this is the one plot line that really could have been cut down. I understand that it's set up but it was kind of meh for me. However, I am totally fine with her love interest being changed to a woman. Let's do this bisexuals! Speaking of which...

Benedict: My god, it felt like the show doesn't know what to do with him - and I am hoping Season 4 is his, because they NEED to do something with Benedict. So, to be clear, I LOVE that they made him bisexual. But the woman he was with was so boring, and I just did not care - because I knew it ultimately wasn't going to go anywhere. And, what was with the never ending orgy? Did we really need to cut back to it ten times? Please, show, give Benedict something interesting to do.

The Mondriches: Look, I feel bad saying it, but these people ultimately served no purpose to the show and could have been lifted right out. I'm sure the actors are lovely but if they're not going to directly service the story, then why are we wasting our time? Though, at least they really aren't the ones taking up the most time.

The Queen: They could have played up the rivalry between her and LW a lot more, and they just didn't. It felt... a little anticlimactic. Also, now what do they do with her as a character? Meh.

Violet and Lady Danbury's brother: I just don't care. I get it. I get that Violet should have something to do outside her children. But there are already a million plots, and not everyone needs to have their own individual story. By the time they threaded this in around episode 3 it did feel like too much.

Did I miss anything?

So... that's how I felt on everything. I have seen commentary about the pushback on Season 3. There are some things I agree about and a lot I don't.

About the actors: I disagree, Nicola and Luke are a delight, and they don't deserve the pushback they've been getting.

About the subplots: It is too many, and I do think they should have either made the season longer, or cut a few things.

About Polin not being as steamy: I think Daphne and Simon's soft core porn-a-thon set an expectation that doesn't necessarily work when you're going for other tropes. I did like the steamy scenes we got (though the last one should have been longer -- we better get some happy sex in season 4 or I will be annoyed) but Polin doesn't have the same dynamic as (what is their shipper name??) Daphne/Simon. We were never going to get the porn-a-thon.

Kanthany didn't either in Season 2, I don't know what to tell people. I appreciate that they're servicing the story they're telling and not just relying on sex. But, I will say, it is still the romance genre, based on books that do feature a lot of sex, so I can understand disappointment in some respects. There is a reason people watch these things, and when it's not met, it can be frustrating.

Idk, what else are people bitching about? (that's rhetorical) I think two years is too long a wait for a show like this. And the anthology aspect of it can make it hard when the focus shifts. People adored Anthony and Kate and to shift it to a very different type of love story can feel jarring, especially, I think if you've spent the past two years digesting what we've already had.

And then there are some people who are just never happy.

And I mean, I already feel a little 'meh' about Season 4. (It'll be Benedicts, there are so many hints...) I'll continue to watch, but I am incredibly sad that this was the year my favorites got to shine. My only hope is that Pen and Colin continue to occupy a space in the story... lord help us, though, in that it doesn't take another ten years to finish...

So.... them my thoughts! I'm sure I'll have more of them as I settle into this bright new world.

Omg, how cute are they????

[helpallthenamesaretakensblog]

EPISODE 6 (just realised no one is asking me to do this too bad) spoilers for series up ahead

ITS NOT A MUSICAL EPISODE 😭

Disney was too broke to show us the animals in the zoo truck WHYY

why am i so happy for the second seaweed brain, man the things being a pjo fan does to you

The way you could see luke’s smile drop when they say that they found the lightning thief (:) —> :/)

The way luke didn’t even let them finish he was like “CLARISSE YES CLARISSE SHE MUST BE THE ROBBER”

No one’s talking about “Chiron should arrest her” Not the mental image of chiron holding a gun saying “ANY WORD CAN AND WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU IN COURT” while clarisse is pushed into a police car lollll

Old married couple im falling out of my chair plsssss if luke did something right in his life it was this

i love annabeth’s face like she knew this was coming the older brother-sister dynamic is POPPING

Disney really needed a way to show that grover liked animals and had convos with them without actually showing them lol

cue the “omg animals are so elegant” speech which served nothing at all

WHATS THE POINT OF ZEBRA TO VEGAS IF THERE AIN’T NO ZEBRA MR HOUSE OF MOUSE????

Idk but i kind of miss the trio action so far this show has only been percabeth + grover instead of percy + annabeth + grover you can tell they’re focusing more on fan service and developing percabeth than developing the more important dynamics which are the three of them having fun

oh HELLO RANDOM CAMEL WHO ISNT EVEN A ZEBRA BUT WHATEVER

“You are two seconds ahead of meeee” the simp eyes the simp eyes

The lotus casino from the outside is so COOL

LEVITATING BY DUA LIPA (some of yall still stuck in poker face era so im leaving it at that)

WISE GIRL I REPEAT WE GOT WISE GIRL (i was honestly expecting it to sound super corny on screen but walker pulled it off like he always does)

look im so mad about the fact that there’s no montage of them being silly little kids and having fun at arcade games. It hits so hard since percy has never afforded to visit fun places, annabeth has never left camp so is absolutely thriving with her architect games, grover is hunting down humans which was so funny and cool and they decided to make it more serious and plot centred

”ill take percy this way” WHY CAN’T GROVER TAKE PERCY THAT WAY HUH ANNABETH? 🤨 (girl just say you want to spend time with him)(and disney say you just wanna write more percabeth scenes)

I love the ‘if you dont know, i dont know either 😄’ mentality that percy has, he knows annabeth wants to be in charge now so he’s just feeding into the hubris

The augustus plot was so weird ngl but it was a great way to introduce the pan stuff

“Biaannncaaaaa biancaaaaaa” NICCOOOOOOO

He sounds so little and innocent and cute 🥺 im so sad now

GROVERRRRRR REMEMBERRRRRR

i gotta say, i guess that i was taken away by the people making fun of lin manuel miranda, but his acting was really really good

We got some may castellan exposition early

Percy thinking that the only thing he could do to sally was hurting her 🥹

i really hope they talk about that later on, you know we love some angst around here (especially with the dreams of the headmaster which was from the books!!! I was thinking that they’d cut it! But they didnt!! But it speaks volumes about percy that he has nightmares of headmasters)

I WANT ANNABETH FLASHBACK ANGST

annabeth pickpocketing the god of thieves will forever be her girlbossiest moment

”Im multitalented” percy: 😍💙🥰🥹 🤩(walker’s acting be that amazing is it not obvious by now that percy likes annabeth)

“Who’s grover ☺️?” “Wait, i know grover 😅!” Walker is cementing himself in the percy throne every single episode

”wow grover got really old😃”

“you lose sight of what’s important when you’re alone” “we weren’t alone 🥰” poor grover

The eons long wait to see how percy was hugging while falling the way down is finally over

The way that you can see percy’s empathy shining through his eyes as grover talked about pan>>>> (honestly tho, hug!)

the way they focused on percy’s reaction, i know this is going to be something he brings up as a reason for him to sacrifice himself for hades

Percy and annabeth looking at grover like “ ok mr. 24 DRIVE US”

Percy trying to drive a car will forever be cinema and comedy peak

The road rage this child has its so funny BEEP BEEP

annabeth: 😁 percy: 🥹 *cutely crashes car and almost kills her* PERCY IS TRULY GIVING A LOSER BOY WHO HAS NEVER HAD A GIRL LOOK AT HIM AND THATS SO PERCY OF HIM

the heartbreak in percy’s eyes alexa play the moment i knew by taylor swift

Four pearls?? *cue that one meme where that girl is calculating*

the way my smile faded when i saw annabeth hanging over the cliff TOO SOON RICK TOO SOON

[two-white-butterflies]

dorothea (part five of five) | h. targaryen

Description: Helaena hangs out in your hotel room for some 'classic sleepover.' Feelings come to life. Pairing: helaena targaryen/cam-girl!reader Author's Note: inspired by Aural Fixation (i cannot find the fic 😭)

part four

Helaena hasn't stopped staring at your phone for the past hour, waiting for any notification that would cement her suspicions. Any ping from onlyfans would make do - but there wasn't any. It seems like your phone was on silent mode.

A humble sigh escapes her mouth - she keeps staring at you, studying every curve on your face. Since the start of her suspicions, she hasn't been able to look at you clearly - all she sees is Dorothea Mae, the girl of her dreams - and perhaps there wasn't any difference between the both of you.

"Are you okay, babe?" a frown is etched on your face while leaning deeper into her touch. Helaena was a human heater - she was always so fucking warm. "Y-yes," she stutters - keeping her phone away from view - lest you see all her notifications from Adam and Eve.

"You're not paying attention to the show, I thought we were going to talk about it after." you whine, slowly taking your eyes away from the screen. The both of you were watching the new season of Black Mirror - Helaena seemed disinterested, and you couldn't understand why. She loved Black Mirror - she believes that it is a mirror of reality, no matter how satirical or exaggerated the show is.

"- the new season feels like a let down," she avoids your gaze, throwing her attention back on the screen. A gasp exits your mouth. "How dare you?" you chuckle softly - not agreeing with her.

"The third episode is kinda good." you defend the show - seeing a piece of your relationship with her inside of it. A laugh escapes her mouth. "I had to cover my eyes during the murder scene," she giggles - knowing that it was probably your favorite part.

"That is the best part," you breathe. A smile finds its way on her lips. She still knows you after all these years apart.

For a moment - she feels guilty for invading your personal space in onlyfans, knowing that there was decades of love between you.

You were her everything.

Her first crush. Her first best friend. Her first real friend.

"Fuck," you curse - seeing that your phone was drained. "W-why? Were you waiting for someone?" she found the power to ask. She was bitterly thrown back into reality - back to her pre-conceived notions about you. "No - I need to search the ending of this episode, or else I won't be able to watch." you close your eyes, reaching for the remote. "Can I borrow your laptop?" you raise your eyebrows - and she complies without second thought. '

She could hear the hair pin drop.

Her search history was as follows: 'don't stop believin lyrics' 'instagram captions harry potter' and finally 'dorothea mae onlyfans'

Everything begins to happen in show motion, the opening of your mouth and the closing of her laptop. "Wow," you breathe - biting back the chuckle that wanted to escape your mouth.

"I-I didn't know that it was you at first." she alibis, and the chuckle escapes your mouth. "- but somewhere along the lines, you did." you insinuated - eyes narrowing at her flushed features.

So beautiful.

"It does make sense - I magically had a new female client." you place a finger to your lips - pretending to be disappointed in her. "If you want to stop being friends, I totally understand." she closes her eyes - waiting for you to stand up and leave her. - but instead she feels a soft pair of lips on hers.

'Quand on n'a que l'amour' the credits began to roll.

Helaena could feel a pair of arms trailing down her loose shirt. "Helaena," you moan her name like a solemn prayer. 'À offrir en prière' the song continues. "I've loved you since we were seventeen," you confess - eyes twinkling at the very mention of love.

'Pour les maux de la terre.'

"I've loved you since we were fourteen." she chuckles in response.

'En simple troubadour' the song continued to sing - echoing through your small hotel room. "I'm never letting you go again," you whisper - pressing another kiss on her strawberry lips.

toelicker69: a day in the life of a dink couple.

11 comments 562 likes

RhaenyraTargaryen: there are kids in this app, 🤣🥰 - toelicker69: love you, Rhae 💗 - RhaenyraTargaryen: love you too

yourinstagram: more like MILF 🔥

aegon.hightower: god my eyes 🤮 - captainaemond: might actually lose my ONLY working eye - toelicker69: doesn't matter cuz ur practically blind

daeronronie: that looks fun! - yourinstagram: oh my god - aegon.hightower: Guess who's not invited to his bday 😆

yourinstagram: "call the waiter" "i'm shy" 🥺 tagged: toelicker69

10 comments 219 likes

toelicker69: two introverts go to a restaurant: - yourinstagram: *gets the wrong order* but it's fine 😭

yourinstagram: it's a bouncing baby girl! meet Suellen Gloria 💙

9 comments 343 likes

toelicker69: officially MILFS

captainaemond: the only Targaryen i can tolerate

aegon.hightower: not you naming the lizard after an old lady - toelicker69: didn't expect a simpleton to understand - aegon.hightower: bro wants to be cool so bad - toelicker69: fuck u

alys_likes_lys: She's the most beautiful woman in the world, but she's not in the picture - because she's me! #TheDayIBecameAThirdWheel. Happy Anniversary girls! 💗

I've never seen a couple more in love than the both of you. Me and Rhaenyra are patiently waiting for the wedding 👀 but neither of you heard it from me (in case someone wants to propose.)

finale is dedicated to @sweethoneyblossom1 and @ruby-dragon, the reblogs are giving me life 😭

@watercolorskyy @bellastwd @nyctophilic0vitnir @sweethoneyblossom1 @gettheetoanunneryimmediatly @dahlias-and-marigolds

[iheartmomochi]

for the longest time i avoided ygo gx bc i saw multiple people online call jaden annoying and say that gx wasn’t as good as 5ds or the original ygo, so i just never bothered to watch it.

but last week i started it because i wanted to watch it for myself and WOW, everything i’ve been told and read online was so far from the truth. i personally am finding gx very enjoyable and judai is super likable! not at all annoying!!

im watching it in japanese because i just dont like judai’s eng dub voice actor and i think that’s definitely why im finding gx enjoyable because everyone ive seen call gx the worst and say jaden is annoying has only watched the 4kids eng dub which is.. extremely bad. im actually shocked by how bad it is. like im no stranger to bad 4kids eng dubs (winx fan) but i didnt think it would be THAT bad.

i tried watching one of the episodes in the eng dub and they just completely changed hayato’s character?!?! for some reason when sho is trying to wake judai so he isnt late, hayato says to leave him be that way they both have a better chance of advancing to ra yellow & in the next scene judai says something like “im late but chumley sure did cook a large breakfast today, im stuffed!” genuinely what was the point of having hayato’s character purposefully make judai late to nake it seem like he wanted to sabotage him??? in the original scene judai is just late bc he woke up late, not because of hayato. also why did they have to change hayato’s name to chumley of all names. i also just dont like how the 4kids dub doesn’t have sho call judai “brother,” like surely they could’ve had sho say “bro.” and by not having him say that, it just takes away from so much of their relationship since sho sees judai as an older brother cementing the fact that sho looks up to judai.

bad eng dub aside, im really looking forward to seeing how things play out! im only on ep 11 rn

[prairiedust]

one thousand days of destiel, or cas: fuckerupper of endings

Idk why I’m crawling out from under my woodpile to write this, except that it occurred to me that in three years I’ve not rewatched a single episode of Supernatural and have at least two dozen tags yet blacklisted on tumblr, and that I am still not okay about this stupid show.

I never tried to tie up the folklore/author themes I’d been geeking out about through the last seasons, neither as the show was ending nor afterwards. I’ve been simmering now for over a thousand days. I could not even write a complete sentence about spn for all this time, and so I just left that pot on the back burner and did other things. Finished my Master’s degree. Started a new job. Saw my oldest child graduate from high school and move off to college, and helped my younger child move on to sixth grade. Watched some other shows, got a new blorbo, saw some movies, started painting again, picked up a couple of new hobbies as I am wont to do.  

Today is the 5th of November, 2023. (ETA i sat on this for a bit.)

November 5th, 2020, was exactly one thousand and ninety-five days ago.

I see gifs from the show from time to time and I think to myself, wow, that scene/episode/series is completely irrelevant to my life now. I am fine and normal about everything. But if it really was, if I really was, it would not hurt so much to see the gifs and the lyric posts and the amvs when they aren’t caught in my tag filters. So maybe it’s time to get some things out of my head and onto paper.

I genuinely, nearsightedly, naively thought that since Dabb et al had been the ones writing the whole folk v author themes, and thus posing as someone we could count as being on “our side,” the folk-side of the postmodern audience, they’d honor that conceit, even to the very last shot. 

They did not.

And yet… they absolutely did.

Which hurts and is fucked up, but also it’s fine. It’s fine.

In the end, the only “folk hero” (by which I mean the only force in the spn universe capable of warping the threads of the story with any permanence) was Castiel. When Castiel left the story (of his own volition, if you can find a comfortable layer of this meta pie for that concept to rest in,) the writers reverted to God Mode. Because Castiel had been their freedom, their mouthpiece, their avenue for improvisation, and so at the end of the series…

well, we got You changed me/I love you

   •

and then we got “Cas helped.”

So much has been written about that pivot point, but genuinely I don’t give a rat’s ass about rewrites, producers, the cutting room floor, or COVID. It exhausts me, and I’m not beholden to writing about spn for grades or notes or any kind of other bullshit that would oblige me to do research.

I feel like… we got what we got.

So let’s criticize some media.

The Paradox: 

Cas imploded— went from flexing the narrative from within to being narrated by a force from without. And I couldn’t bear to wrap my head around that for a long time. It seemed that this “twist” was beyond cruel. That’s what he got. Vanished and nerfed. For saying ily. That was what happened when he was finally in focus, fully revealed. He lost. He was relegated, along with Jack, to become heaven’s Two Men and a Truck.

It was a trick, the whole “Chuck is a writer” plotline. The Author regained control of the character that had previously been acting independently. Very Pirandellesque, very frustrating, ultimately even tragic.

So, yes, thematically and critically, having Castiel give up his Agency for Characterhood– giving up his ability to create plot for a role as a character in a plot— was ‘literary’ brilliance. It cemented his status as a grand fucker-upper of the show in a way that any show writer “authoring” a requited destiel ending would not and could not have done. Even Jack, I believe, had been “manipulated” into god-hood from within the narrative. Jack was Dabb’s grand metaphor, he was a product of Author. Castiel was… well, he was a chaos engine from the moment he walked through those barn doors. 

To seal the metaphor, the writers ended up living that truth.

I really don’t know if I’m being cogent about this. I’ve been struggling to turn this idea into words for, like, ONE THOUSAND DAYS.

The folk-vs-Author themes becoming A Thing in The Supernatural Show was like a chemical reaction: once the ions had bonded, the resultant compound could not be separated back into the different materials. What on that screen was Author, what was “author,” ie show writer, and what was text-experiencer-as-author? Where did the Sam-as-magician arc go, what were we supposed to do with the semi-metatextual moments that Mary had, having been brought back into the narrative by Amara, not Chuck? Everything got so out of control. Add in a smidgen of secret-sauce-TPTB possibly superseding the author/Author, and what you get is that ridiculous mess of a final two episodes.

It’s not about the rusty trombone or the butt hole pleasures. It’s about love. And kids.

Thank you, hon. It really is. (The above line was left in this doc by my spouse. It is a quote from The 40-Year-Old Virgin. I’ll allow it.)

Anyway. It was hard to see past the sound and the fury of it all. 

*****

I was feeling nostalgic several months ago and took a swim in my old meta tags; I found a gem from season…10? Idk and idc, but it was from “The Things We Left Behind.” 

I compared Claire to Sleeping Beauty (a tale that got a lot of use in later seasons) and wrote: “I tend to think that Castiel’s entire arc is about desperate and unintentionally misguided attempts to Change The Ending of whatever story he’s shown up in” and reading that again really kind of sucker-punched me.

‘We’re making it up as we go’ was the crux of Cas’ existence. Remember that half-related story in Baby wherein Cas got himself hitched to the Djinn queen? Remember when Jack died and the Empty came to claim him in Heaven and Cas made that terrible bargain? The last-minute attempt to gank Lucifer that actually got him killed and sent to The Empty?

Time and time again, Castiel’s go-to for “changing the narrative,” for advancing his plot, is self-sacrifice. In Chuck’s house against the archangel. The Leviathan disaster. Saying ‘yes’ to Lucifer. The Bargain for Jack in Heaven. And those times it worked out. Not without great pain for both the other characters and for the viewers, but he always came back. 

And with each return, his motivation became clearer. (Picture your favorite screencap of Dean here.)

Cas’ love grew, crystalized, and then disappeared, like frost on the windowpane of a house on fire.

If they had continued the CasDean storyline, it would have ultimately been The Author IRL writing/creating/manifesting/materializing ‘destiel.’ And so by putting a torch to all of that architecture, they essentially gave everything to us. Unspoilt. Fingerprints wiped. Serial numbers scratched away. Jailbroken. Whatever floats your boat. 

The confession was both affirmation and abnegation. Symbolically, The AuthorTM had washed his hands of it, but with destiel out of the picture, The Author also got his ending.

This is why “Cas helped” felt like a ‘fuck you.’ If Cas was out of the narrative, why did he come back as one of Heaven’s real estate developers? It did not fit. 

And yet. It did. Because Chuck won. Chuck, or everything that an Author represents in television land– TPTB, showrunner legacies, multiple producers, a chaotic and treacherous and politically messy writer’s room, multiple incompatible or unresolvable MOs and visions— all that ends up being packaged and presented as a single unerring vision.

So I have to admit, although I don’t have to do it with any ion of grace, that in the end it was pretty fucking smart.

Destiel is ours. Destiel is the folk ending. The Author never got to touch it, never so much as breathed on it, was so far divorced from the concept that the absence thereof going forward hit us like a truck full of bricks.

Yes, it hurts that Dean was just left on the floor until the credits rolled, that there were no final words, no ensuing acknowledgement. 

I’ll go so far outside the Text as to address the ‘Dean can’t reciprocate’ direction from one of the scripts:

If Dean had made a single move onscreen. Uttered a word. In Despair or either of the other two episodes.

Destiel would have been claimed by The Author. 

Anyway. I’ve been collecting posts now and again under the tag ‘the endless folklore of supernatural.’ For three years, the fandom has continued to loot, to ransack, to graffiti, to create and re-create, to burn, to mix, and to distill. 

There’s all kinds of things in that tag, it’s sort of a kitchen sink of everything that I thought was even tangentially relevant to folk-Destiel and the postmodern experience of creating text as a reader/viewer etc. 

We turned a literary story based on an urban folktale back into folklore. 

And so it goes.

I doubt I will do much more analysis of this show, even if it comes back, and I unfortunately can’t touch The Winchesters. But I can’t say I never will. I just thought three years, one thousand days, was a pretty good place to leave a marker on the trail.

—

Epilogue: About The Winchesters:

I did not finish watching The Winchesters because of something wildly, randomly, but highly personally triggering that was built into one of the episodes; however I am very sorry that it was canceled or possibly ironically lost to the WGA-SAGAFTRA strike of 2023.

“What is the maddest thing a man can do? Let himself die.” That’s the clue that leads Castiel to his hidden grace in a copy of The Man of LaMancha in 10.18 ‘The Book of the Damned,’ written by one Robbie Thompson.

I noticed from the get-go that Thompson gave Carlos the last name Cervantez. He was nodding to the self-immolation of the last cadre of writers of Supernatural and stating clearly that he was holding a pen, not a match.

Want some very fun and amusing and wildly pertinent facts about the Don Quixote books?

The narrative conceit of Don Quixote IN THE FIRST PLACE LOL is that Cervantes claims to have found a manuscript by a historian named Cide Hamete Benegeli and Cervantes thought the story was pretty neat, if a little rough; Cervantes retells the story for us from what he’d read by that author, distilling the “original” into the book we experience as Don Quixote the Man of La Mancha.

The final words of Cervantes’ Part One are “perhaps another will sing with a better pick.”

Later, someone publishing under the pseudonym Alonso Fernandez de Avellaneda wrote their own part two, feeling that the original author was taking too long to get their ass in gear (or judging by their own preface they felt that Cervantes had not even done the original story justice in the first place. Which is A Mood.)

So when someone actually did have the audacity to run off with his characters and commit word crimes with them, Cervantes absolutely obliterated the dude in his own Part Two. 

Thompson left Spn after season eleven. But, lest someone think this is a commentary about fan fic, he also wrote the episode Fan Fiction. So anyway all the Cervantez-Cervantes business was certainly something.

[blue-mint-winter]

House of the Dragon s2e4

Amazing episode. The writers from ep2 must have come back because the dialogue is ON POINT.

Aegon and Rhaenys were stand out performances, but everyone else was very good too (except Alys, she feels out of place).

Daemon's stuck in Harrenhal, haunted by his personal demons and having weird dreams and visions. That part really felt like he was existing in some other plane. He accomplished nothing so he doesn't even write to Dragonstone with any updates.

Daemon advising the young Oscar Tully to smother his grandfather and take over as the lord WTF that was so unhinged. Is kinslaying a disease and he wants to spread the virus? If he makes everyone else a kinslayer, will his guilt lessen?

I can't believe Daemon took a drink from a suspicious woman and just drank it without any question. And then he blanks out for hours and regains consciousness in the middle of a council. What was he doing when he was out of it?

The Blackwood guy is the kid who killed a Bracken during Rhaenyra's tour in s1. I don't trust him.

Aegon was great, the scenes with the council not listening to him, not needing him, Aemond mocking him in Valyrian, Alicent telling him he is there to do nothing. It all just accumulates, until the realization that he was never meant to rule, but to be a figurehead, a puppet. The feeling of helplessness, uselessness which drives him to go into battle and prove his worth. If he fights like conqueror, maybe they will finally listen.

I love that Aegon questioned Larys Strong about Harrenhal, that he cared about taking the central castle to spread and cement his rule. No one else did.

It's interesting how Rhaenys was similarly not listened to at Rhaenyra's council. I was thinking that she also maybe wanted to get some respect for going into battle. Though it wasn't a main reason, her situation was way more complicated, she had many motivations. The most logical reason was that her dragon had the actual battle experience unlike others on Rhaenyra's side. And I think she felt responsible for Lucerys' death.

Aegon and Rhaenyra again being opposites. One isn't listened by his own council, the other's council can't do anything without their queen there. One goes into battle against the advice, the other listens to the advice and doesn't go. One mocked then betrayed by his heir, the other questioned but protected by her heir.

Finally more Jace!!! The one who respects his mother even if she's reckless and he worries about her safety. It's good to see how he grows into his role as the heir, when Rhaenyra finally tells him about the prophecy, it felt monumental. He is the real heir now. That's what makes one the heir - the passing of the secret known only to the king. This is what Aegon, Aemond and Daemon lack.

The battle sequence was amazing, I had to rewatch it. Aegon messing up Cole's plan, Aemond taking advantage of the situation to backstab his brother, Vhagar being a cunning war machine, Meleys showing experience, agility and grit during the fight and almost pulling off a win against 2 opponents, if not for the ambush. Rheanys coming back to finish the job, I was rooting so hard for her. Vhagar crushing the soldiers on Green side underfoot. Meleys' last look at Rhaenys before she dies and Rhaenys falls. Cole being knocked out by Vhagar's passing then barely preventing Aemond mercy(?) killing Aegon. Sunfyre curled up protectively around Aegon's body. WOW just wow

How ironic that Aemond became the backstabbing second son that lusts for the throne. That is exactly what Otto thought of Daemon for years and yet Daemon never betrayed Viserys, stayed loyal to him to the end and protected his wishes for Rhaenyra to rule. Otto and Alicent raised Aemond to become who they feared the most.

[sandymybeloved]

okay this is going to be a bit random and tangenty and quite personal and very long but here we go because I am having thoughts.

so I just watched this video about the fandom hating whatever is new. the video itself is fine but the thing is it perfectly described the realisations I had in myself of how I came to a lot of my opinions of Doctor Who after joining the fandom

I have been a Doctor Who fan for borderline my entire life. That is not an exaggeration, "who was your first doctor" doesn't have a clear answer for me, because I have been watching from such a young age it could be any of 9, 10, or 11 depending on how you define it. I was two and a half when the revival started, both my parents were doctor who fans growing up, and watched the revival from day one. My earliest memory of Doctor Who is of Gridlock, but the chances that was my actual first episode may as well be zero. I watched and rewatched every available episode basically from the time my parents first got streaming.

I say all this to emphasise my joining the fandom was extemely extremely secondary to my love of the show. That sounds really trivial, everyone in the doctor who fandom joins because they love doctor who, but the difference for me is the when, I have loved doctor who for more than twice as long as I have been interacting with the Doctor Who fandom.

I was about 13 when I first started interacting with the fandom in earnest, around the time series 9 was airing, mainly through watching peoples reviews on YouTube. I think broadly this was good for me, I was getting something healthy out of them, either they were episodes I had watched douzens of time over the years leaving me with well cemented opinions on them, or for new episodes, because it takes time for people to make reviews, I had had enough time to at least know if I liked them or not. Watching these reviews informed opinions I already held or gave me a new perspective, what they did not do was dictate my opinion

I was 16 when the Chibnall era started, and it was during series 11 that I first started reading peoples opinions on episodes. This was very bad for me. I was not great at knowing why I did or didn't like something. I'd watch something, and to whatever extent enjoy it or otherwise, not immediately, but shortly after, I would go and look at what other people thought, and it was usually pretty negative. I remember it not seeming so at that start, but slowly fandom consesus was worse and worse.

Slowly, it felt like it was wrong to like an episode. Not in any extreme way, I never fell into not my doctor types, i never believed the ratings mattered, but I was at an age and a point in my life where my opinions were easily swayed, if everyone said an episode was bad then surely it must be, unless my opinions had been cemented by time and countless rewatches, it didn't feel like I disagreed, it felt like I was wrong.

[wow okay, that video really got me thinking apparently, for some reason its gone midnight, so I'm going to bed and will finish writing this tomorrow] [okay hi back now]

The problem was very much my own. Shockingly, not knowing why I liked or didn't like something, and immediately going online and reading articulate points about why it was bad was not going to help me understand my own opinions, it was going to make my differing opinions, which lets be real here was just when I liked something, feel incorrect

I think it got so negative so quickly because a similar thing was happening to a lot of people. There was a group of people who were never going to like it, but weren't going to say the real reason because the majority of the fandom didn't think it was inherently bad that the Doctor was a woman now. But if you can find something in the episode that you can legitimately complain about and shout about it loudly enough that it becomes the main talking point for the episode, then a lot of normal fans are inevitably going to come away believeing it, and after enough episodes its the whole era thats bad, not just individual episodes

By the time series 12 rolled around I was going into episodes expecting not to like them, and subconsciously looking for what the complaint was going to be. It may as well have been impossible for me to like an episode, because watching new episodes of a show you love looking for things to hate in it is not going to lead to you liking it

Some things did still break through but not for legitimate reasons, as soon as an episode would end I was on the internet before giving myself a second to form an opinion, if people seemed to like it, I liked it, if people seemed to hate it, I hated it. By opinions weren't being influenced at that point, they were being dictated

I realised something was wrong with the way I was interacting with my favourite show some time before Flux. Timing wise, it must have been during Revolution of the Daleks. I had been watching Doctor Who with my parents all my life, from the time I was old enough for it to be consistently before my bed time, every new episode I watched with them. While my mum has watched every episode since 2005, most of them multiple times, I have long since considered her a much more casual fan than me. We never really talked about episodes and things we didn't like, but we sat down to watch this episode, and she said she expected it to be bad. It was incredibly alien to me and like a great big flashing neo sign screaming at me that something was wrong even though I agreed. If the Chibnall hate was at such a fever pitch and prevelance it had reached my mum what was it doing to me

That was the catalyst that really made me realise a lot of my opinions weren't really entirely my own, and that going into new episodes expecting to hate them and looking for something I didn't like was warping my perspective.

I did make a conserted effort with flux to digest the episodes at least a little bit before seeking out other peoples opinions, but by that point it was sort of too late to save my opinion of the series as a whole. I did end up liking a couple episodes but I was still in a Chibnall bad mindset, if you will. I felt very weird about enjoying any individual episodes, but at least I knew I liked them.

After that, Eve of the Daleks and Power of the Doctor I was able to just enjoy, I reached a point where I was a lot more comfortable disagreeing from time to time, because it felt good to know those opinions were just my own, but my opinions on earlier episodes still hadn't changed

before Power of the Doctor, I tried to rewatch all of the Chibnall era, but I only made it half way through series 11. New episodes I could form opinions on for the first time, but my dislike for series 11 and 12 was pretty deep rooted, every time I watched an episode and came away liking it, it felt like I was getting it wrong, I was watching the episodes incorrectly and coming to incorrect conclusions, because how could I and seemingly everyone else be wrong for years. It also made interacting with the fandom not fun in its own way, If I liked Ryan now, and everyone else was constantly complaining about him, it felt bad

I needed more time and distance, and for everyone elses focus to shift, so its only really since the 60th that I've felt able to actually revisit it with a clean slate to form my own opinions, because everyone is shouting about something else now. And hey I'm almost done with series 11 and I liked most of it

I don't think everyone is regurgitating percieved fan consensus, I don't think its bad to not like the Chibnall era, and I don't think fan consensus is necessarily always wrong, but I do think being bombarded with other peoples opinions before your own has really solidified is a recipe for disaster if you don't do it critically.

Watching that video was very strange, because I have thought about this all before, but seeing someone else describe how they saw a lot of the fandoms opinions on the Chibnall era as regurgitated and not really holding water, and not really meaningfully held was like watching someone grab my teenaged self by the throat and begging them to realise what they were doing and how unhealthy for them it was

umm yeah, I don't know how to finish this, uhhh, critical thought good, blindly accepting popular thought as your own bad

[comicgeekery]

Sherlock & Co. : The Lion's Mane

I just listened to The Three Students and it gave me the brain fever for this podcast again. Here's my thoughts on The Lion's Mane episodes! 1000 kudos to the writers for making The Lion's Mane actually interesting. It's long been my least favorite Sherlock Holmes story, mostly because it's really stupid. Doyle really cemented the trope of "dude who dies muttering the most obscure possible clue about his death". We get "speckled band", "Ballarat", and "lion's mane" where it would have made way more sense to say "Something bit me", "dick Aussie", and "a goddamn jellyfish"! I appreciate the subversion Doyle did of making it look like there could be a murder but for once it's just an accident, but...it just always super contrived. Anyway, S&C did a brilliant job revamping that story! An entirely new setting, a genuinely intriguing mystery, fascinating cultural exploration, and a solution that was beautifully layered, offering solid twists for new fans and listeners familiar with the original story. I honestly had no idea if an actual jellyfish would be involved by the end, there were so many "lion's mane" red herrings! Then, when there was, there were still very much actual crimes happening! Also, the narration, acting, and music were really on point for conveying the wonder of the sea of jellyfish. Way to make a visual work for an audio medium, team! And smaller detail: We're getting more hints that Mariana's got some secrets. She was obviously reflecting on some stuff that the isolated, insular Scottish town brought up. I'm looking forward to finding out more about her. My only criticism of this adventure is the long bit about Harry Potter stuff. After the transphobic associations of A Case of Identity, I'm really nervous about this podcast being a trans-friendly one. And, sadly, I don't think JKR's work can be suitable separated from her awful, hateful activism. Promoting Harry Potter helps give her more money to put toward passing transphobic legislation and otherwise promoting hate. Besides that, queer content has been pretty minimal on Sherlock & Co. As far as I recall there's only been one explicitly queer character, Sherlock's old friend in The Gloria Scott. It just...has me teetering about whether or not I'm safe listening to this show. I know I've said before that I deeply hope Sherlock and John get together on it by the end, but it's been a long time since I've noticed any vibes that felt flirty between them. Maybe this really is another show where they'll just be friends. Which would be valid, just disappointing. But I hope it isn't at the price of realizing this was never a show for me. Hmm. Wow, real downer of a thought to end this post on! Guess my brain went places! Anyway, The Lion's Mane was overall fantastic and I'm glad I got to hear such a complex re-imagining of the story!

[monstermoviedean]

regarding your post about 13x13 dean and cas’s interactions after they get cas back from asmodeus and what you said about cas changing the topic and apologizing for smth he’s inevitably gonna do again: i genuinely have no idea how people think dean sabotages their friendship/romance more than cas does?! cause like, yeah dean may have a hard time asking people to stay, but cas is the one often actively lying about his plans and ghosting dean 😭😭

like genuinely i’m so confused where it came from cause i was not in the fandom when the show was airing, so idk how people’s opinions developed. does this go back to the general “womanizer dean can’t have healthy relationships” idea that’s just such an overall misunderstanding of his character but has been here for so long?? is it because dean blames himself for everything in dialogue and people assume that’s the contextual truth? OR was there a specific season/episode that kinda cemented the idea in the wider fandom that dean is the bigger saboteur in their relationship specifically?? a combination???

i have theories but they're overlapping and i don't have full context since i'm still missing about two seasons. however. what i have generally seen:

this particular combination of assumptions (origin unknown): dean is repressed whereas cas is completely emotionally aware. dean does not know how he feels about cas and doesn't care to figure it out. cas is in love with dean, always has been, and has always known it. dean bad cas good. (this works with, as you mentioned, "womanizer dean can't have healthy relationships")

dean tends to be more outwardly emotional, including expressing upset with cas. because cas tends not to be as outwardly emotional, i think this becomes read as like...cas never getting a chance to stick up for himself? cas just taking it and never complaining? of the examples i can think of off the top of my head (dean giving cas the cold shoulder in 08x22, dean being upset with cas for running in 12x19), dean has legitimate reasons to feel hurt by cas' actions. the problem is sometimes that those actions are far removed from dean's reaction (...because cas literally hasn't been there to react to!) so it could feel like it's coming out of nowhere.

the widespread belief that dean makes cas feel unwelcome/uncared for. mostly predicated on dean "kicking cas out of the bunker with nothing" in 09x03. sigh. i understand why people get mad about this one, i really do. but even if i take my deangirl glasses off i think 'wow, dean was in a tough spot and made an awful choice that he thought would keep sam and cas both alive.' i see why he did it even though i don't like it, obviously. i simply do not believe there is any evidence to support 'dean kicked him out with nothing,' however.

a pattern many others have pointed out: dean tends to apologize more. the apologies stick out in people's minds, so it feels like dean has done more wrong because he's saying sorry more often. (this aligns well with what you said about dean blaming himself for everything)

this is just a suspicion because i haven't seen all of s15 and cannot be sure. however, the way i've seen people talk about "divorce arc" tends to suggest that the show places blame on this rupture on dean, and fans followed that blame. it also may be that this happened more recently so people remember it better than, say, cas breaking sam's wall in s6.

just a side note. i was here and active in the spn fandom 2011-2015, give or take. and while it is fully and entirely possible that this happened and i just don't remember it...i don't remember this kind of moral accounting, which one of them is the good one and which is the bad one, ledger of outstanding crimes which need to be addressed thing. i remember it being more balanced and a lot more "yay dean! yay cas! yay dean and cas together!" and less "who is ruining everything."

[meowstix]

v-force thoughts, a year and a half later

so i've been doing a v-force rewatch with a friend (who hasn't seen it before). we're currently 20 episodes in, here's some thoughts

overall i'm actually enjoying it a lot more than i did on first watchthrough. like i was worried i'd only like it compared to g-rev but no i'm genuinely really liking it

animation still sucks ass though. notable quotes from me and my friend respectively include "half the characters look like they smoked the forever weed" and "i can see the polygons on those beys"

the vibes are really cozy at points. like literally the scenes of just the gang hanging out are SO GOOD, same goes for the saint shields too actually

on a related note, i already knew takao and daichi's arguing in g-rev was unpleasant to watch, but rewatching v-force has REALLY cemented that opinion. like when petty arguments happen in v-force it just feels like that, petty arguments yaknow.

kai is extremely autism and i need to go take screenshots of him sometime. i mean i already remembered him being like that in this season but half the time he's onscreen i feel like i'm going to explode (in a good way)

here's a really good kai moment btw.

also there's this really odd and kinda out of character moment with max when he first shows up. and idk i just felt like pointing it out. at the very least it's another point against the way people commonly portray him ig

lastly, i'm still not quite able to put into words what it is that makes The Yuya Incident work so well despite everything but i think what makes psykick just NOT work is. well okay for starters they are obviously not intimidating (though that does kind of work with the early stuff) but they also just... do not have much of a presence, y'know? like in s1 and g-rev whenever volkov is on screen there's a goddamn AURA to that guy. psykick makes me feel nothing.

speaking of volkov yeah they really forget s1 exists. it's so funny how takao's like "wow hiromi's ideas are so ridiculous" even though the idea of an international crime ring isn't that far-fetched considering borg.

[navarice]

Finished the first two episodes of Percy Jackson and oh my gods SO MANY THOUGHTS that I simply must share it all. First thoughts foremost is that the cast did wonderfully! CHB and the chosen trio make the world of PJO come alive and it's just chef's kiss. I can't wait for the next episodes to see what they will bring. WARNING: Spoilers under cut.

They changed up some stuff from the get-go, but the initial monologue survived!! Percy is not Percy without "Look, I didn't want to be a Half-Blood."

MAMA JACKSON IS A SLAYYY. "How do you know those who are heroes are heroes and those who are monsters are monsters." YES TY THIS IS WHAT MY FEMINISM NEEDED!!!

The Fruit of the Loom underpants on Mr. Minotaur from the mythomagic cards is an absolute serve.

Grover!!! Mr. Brunner!!! Mrs. Dodds!!! Nancy Bobofit!!!!

Uncle Rick I see you right there hehe.

SMELLY GABE OMG. Love how he's still just a pathetic loser. I can see why they scaled back on the abuse from the books.

Olivia Rodrigo??? Sally Jackson is THAT girl fr. Disgustingly real of her. I can see why Posideon was down real bad. My Spartan Princess Queen Warrior Mother shined when she schooled Gabe (basic white trash).

MONTAUK UGH PAIN. Early visions of Charon were also a great addition. The pacing of the show is really standing out but I really appreciate how they hit the important points.

SALLY DISTRACTING THE MINOTAUR WITH THE JACKET OH WOW SO BADASS!!! She is just as brave as her son and I loved the shift in narrative between the two.

ANNABETH WHOOP THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I ENVISIONED HER SAYING THAT LINE

oh...wow... it's camp....it's THE camp...my childhood...my cabins....the amphitheater...my home...

Mr. D is so different haha and tbh all I see is Pimiento from B99

Love the intense lore drop there Luke, it definitely leaves enough room for plot, exposition, and character arc.

Whoever the guy next to Luke is, he is my spirit animal

CLARISSE IS SOOO COOL I'M ON HER SIDE FOR WHATEVER SHE WANTS TO DO

PERCY LOVES HIS MAMA SO MUCH I LOVE THEIR BOND AAAAHHH. I also love the early hints of disliking the gods and percy's sense of duty

Forgot to mention Grover and his dryad mama?? caretaker?? whatever the case he is so cutie and baby. AND SUCH A GOOD FRIEND/PROTECTOR

Annabeth is Annabething for SURE

CAPTURE THE FLAG

PERCY DICKING AROUND PLSS IT"S SO HIM

these kids are so good at doing their own stunts love a good sword fight

"I'm sorry" *pushes you in the water* (loved the satisfied look on Annabeth's face bc she sure as hell knew what she was doing, and her hunch was right!!!)

"I'm the son of Sally Jackson" YES YOU ARE BABY BOYY. Amazing callback to the story of Perseus and Danae, once again calling back to the bond between mother and son rather than the hero himself.

Percy's character is cemented early, this boy is motivated only by his family and friends, not the gods themselves, absolutely made the magic WORK.

Next episode prophecy???

Overall, this is the adaptation we've all been waiting for. I've never experienced happiness more. Season 2 release when?? HOO adaptation when??? Pls give the whole 9 yards and more

[razorblade180]

“Nothing Happened”

Let’s talk about RWBY Vol9 and the oddest complaint in my opinion that I keep seeing! For some reason, people keep saying this was basically filler and that nothing happened. While I think certain parts of the finale didn’t wow me, it feels so disingenuous to say nothing happened or changed.

I’ve heard the argument it’s because the heroes still want to beat Salem and do what’s right like they did before, and while that is true, the framework and mindset is different which was the entire point for the volume and finding yourself.

Ruby dealt with feeling like an imposter for failing to meet expectations/idolizations of what she should be to the point she genuinely believed the world would be better off without her and didn’t want to do deal with it anymore. Admittedly, I too was a little disappointed that she didn’t return with a new design, form, or etc. However, there wasn’t a second I was mad at it because under the conditions that got her there, the most important and morally correct thing to represent is for the message to be “Choose yourself because you’re enough.” While I don’t want the show to completely write her as if she’s out of the woodwork, it’s a very important change that from this moment Ruby’s failures going forward shouldn’t have her believe “I’m not cut out for this” but “Get it together, gotta find a way to salvage this.” More constructive and less destructive.

My personal nitpick with the episode is having her friends going “She knew what she was all along” because no the hell she didn’t. If she did then she wouldn’t have drunken the tea or y’know, have a internal crisis about her life and decisions.

As for Jaune, people think that regaining his youth means nothings happened in the end? Why? He remembers everything and has fought for decades now. Outside of that, this volume has gotten him over the main hurdle of killing Penny and a bunch of his baggage of feeling like a failure for not protecting people by also changing his mindset to understand it’s not his fault. At the end of the day you gotta do the best you can and try not to wallow in the pain or hold on in fear of it. Like Ruby, I really hope there’s still a slight adjustment period in breaking old habits and even him generally feeling a bit awkward socializing with people again. It would be really neat if he still woke up early for something specific and someone has to tell him “It’s okay. You don’t have to do that anymore.”

As for the rest of the team, besides the literal relationship cementing, I can agree not an entire shift has changed outside of something we would actually have to see in practice which would be how they approach Ruby and some problem solving. Like they’ve always sorta workshopped most plans together but it would be swell if they were now more attentive to how Ruby is feeling about something or they purposely take an action that is primarily for Ruby’s benefit.

So yes, while the over all goal remains the mindset is different and I think that means a lot.