#Human Logic Vs Ghost Instincts

[akela-nakamura]

Alone In A Room, for the title game

send me a made-up fic title and I’ll tell you what i would write to go with it:

Okay, okay. I see this two different ways:

First: When a ghost is first formed, it's Lair in the GZ is a single room behind a plain door. It builds itself as the ghost gains strength and younger ghosts have to spend time in their Lairs to regain ectoplasm and "rest" as it were.

Second: When a ghost is forced into it's core, it's like being locked in a room. When they're first forced in, there isn't much around but it doesn't really matter, 'cause they're too tired to be bored. As they regain their strength (and how fast this happens depends on if their core is cared for or is simply left on its own), it builds up. And a ghost can start to feel what's around it. A ghost's ectoplasm is also really malleable when they're in their core, so if they want to change how they look they can do so in their core.

I like the first one better, so this is what I'm thinking:

Danny's only been a halfa for a few weeks when he starts feeling weak. The ghosts he's fighting aren't terrible powerful in the grand scheme of things, but for a young halfa who's still trying to figure out their powers, it's a lot.

Danny also can't understand why he feels so ill, he had been getting stronger, gaining more control but it's like he's hit a wall. Tucker and Sam try to help but they're just as in the dark as Danny is about ghosts and their needs. Sam suggestion hanging out near the portal, Tucker wonders if Danny has to actually eat ectoplasm or something.

At this point, they don't even know what cores are. They're running blind and they're starting to get scared. Maybe there isn't a cure for this, maybe the energy that blasted into Danny during the accident was temporary and it's running out.

Maybe Danny's going to die fully after all. Maybe that's why all the ghosts are gunning for him, he's not supposed to exist.

One night, Danny goes to bed early. He's so tired. There's a weight in his chest and he can feel something stuttering. It's not his heart, but it feels just as important. He feels a little hollow, like he hasn't eaten despite having dinner.

He can't sleep. He's so freaking tired but he can't sleep. It's not enough, it's not what he needs. He works his way down stairs and goes to the lab and it's a little better next to the portal. But it's still not right.

He paces outside the portal for a bit, tired, frustrated, and so so confused. There's something tugging at him, something calling him and he doesn't understand. There's instincts buzzing under his skin and he doesn't know how to interpret them. There's something that has to be found but he has no idea what.

He tries to stick to logic: Fact, going into the GZ alone is dumb, especially when he's this weak. Fact, not telling anyone where he's going is dumber and Jazz will freak. Fact, he doesn't know his way around the Zone, he can't go in without backup. He could run into someone he simply can't fight right now.

As the night drags on, logic--his human logic--slowly starts to lose meaning.

In the end, he's barely able to scribble a note out to Jazz and his friends before he dives into the portal, chasing after something he doesn't understand.

He transforms just before he hits the portal and it's like all thought vanishes. School, Amity, his family, his Obsession--all pale in comparison to what he has to find here, in the Zone.

He's seen the Zone before in brief bursts, but he hasn't ventured very deep yet. He's been too nervous to explore alone and Sam and Tucker can't exactly fly.

None of that matters now, though. He doesn't register anything, his mind is firmly locked on his Lair. There's a beating in his chest that can't be his heart and he feels...driven. There is only one goal and he cannot be distracted.

(He doesn't know it, but no one could find him right now if they wanted to. He's not exactly Phantom right now, he's a baby ghost in need of their Lair.)

He navigates by instinct, feeling the ectoplasmic currants that flow through the Zone and the feel of the larger lairs and kingdoms that dot the Zone.

He finds it and it's like joy. It's like home. It's like belonging.

The door is nondescript but he knows.

It opens for him. When he enters, all the tension in him eases. The pulse in his chest slows and the cycle lengthens, like whatever lies in his chest is slowly drawing energy in. The ectoplasm feels different here, less purposeful, less formed. It's not a fight to pull it in, to use it.

He curls on the floor and finally finally sleeps.

[psychewritesbs]

Chapter 244: Inhuman Makyo Shinjuku Showdown, Part 16--Miwa's sword vs Higuruma's sword

😮‍💨 phew. What a week to be a jjk fan.

I've been on jjk defense mode for days 😂 quite the exercise in futility truly joke's on me lmao

So this week I am going on a tangent about Miwa because I would have liked to see more from her AND I think Gege was using Miwa to tell a story that did not align with those expectations.

So... at the expense of ghost writing for Gege...

... I am going on a tangent about the symbolism in this chapter surrounding Miwa's character and what that says for her and why I find it relatable af, not necessarily as a woman, but as a human.

You have been warned...

Your death would be meaningless

So we start the chapter with the main complaint against jjk this last week: its character deaths are meaningless, purely for shock value, and don't contribute anything to the overall themes, other characters, and plot.

So I love Kusakabe here saying "your death would be meaningless if you joined this battle, if you don't want to die then you don't want to die and that's a'ok kthanksbye" because this speaks to having a reasonable mindset and a strong sense of self needed to make a choice like Nori did.

One thing to consider is that jjk is a battle between instinct free from reason (Sukuna and other sorcerers like him) and reason (whom Angel and characters like her represent).

Which brings us to Miwa who has not explicitly shared any reasoning regarding running away. In fact, she's still very much part of the gang even if she can't swing her sword anymore--that kind of says something about her instinctual self.

That is not to mention that, Miwa is an ant in a battle of dancing elephants, and Kokichi wanted to protect and see her flourish.

So Miwa joining this battle directly would truly be a meaningless death.

And yet, I wanted her to do something unexpected.

I wanted her to do something kick ass because plot twist, I was hoping that every time she called herself useless she was just being self-depreciating and that she could actually make something, anything happen.

And that's when I realized that Miwa is past "me".

So there goes all objectivity about jjk out the window. Here comes the ghostwriting.

Miwa has bought into an identity about herself that keeps her limited in what she can do and accomplish--this is one of the most basic themes at the core of jjk.

People who THINK they are the strongest and how that idea of themselves limits how they perceive and relate to others.

People who THINK the best they can do is throw away their life and how that idea of themselves makes them downplay their abilities.

Or people who THINK they are useless and how they fumble their future because of the one time they decided to believe in themselves... well, we all know how that went.

What I love about this is that it's anticlimactic af given how easily Kenny breaks Miwa's sword.

And I love it precisely because it's real. Like... after seeing herself as useless for so long instead of focusing on developing her sense of self, never being able to swing the katana is the result of how Miwa overestimated herself because of her naivety.

Our actions have consequences, and jjk does not shy away from that truth and never has. Look at Megumi right now.

I also loved that there's a character with a sword so powerful, it can kill it's opponent with a single swing.

And that got me thinking about the symbolic significance of the sword in relation to Miwa and Higuruma because it almost feels like Gege might just be intentional about juxtaposing these two characters in terms of their sense of self.

The sword as symbol of the mind

This is true especially when you look at Miwa's clueless reactions to all of the talk about law, which is a logic-based endeavor, and you compare that to Higuruma's effortless handling of the discussion.

The thing is that the sword is a masculine/yang symbol that can represent authority, power, and dominance, and more importantly, the penetrative and discriminative abilities of the intellect.

Think of it this way, like the mind, a sword can metaphorically cut through darkness to create clarity and understanding, just as much as it can penetrate through surfaces in search for depth and meaning.

We all have this ability, but in this chapter Miwa is shown to struggle to keep up with the conversation compared to everyone else.

What we saw in this chapter is a clueless 16 year old girl actually idk how old Miwa is but that's besides the point who made a really bad decision because she's young af and lacks the ability to reason the way a grown up would and who has to pay the consequences of her blunder.

Compared to Higuruma's powerful sword, Miwa's sword breaking is symbolic of her will and her own sense of self. Miwa is "weak" because of how she sees herself.

I can see why people would find that annoying, but I kind of personally see it as very empowering because it now means Miwa has to find a way to be useful without her sword. But that's just me. That's kind of how I see the world.

Now, will we get to see said character development? mmm probably not? She is side character af.

Is there an imbalance of "powerful" male characters compared to "powerful" female characters (that tend to all follow a Warrior/Amazon Queen archetype or rely on masculine definitions of strength)?

I'm going to dodge that question by redirecting your attention to the latest hc I was sold because I can't do anything about the question: Higuruma and Mei Mei were a thing.

#Self-righteous lawyer and self-serving hottie have a fling 😮‍💨 this is what shadow dynamics are made of.

That said, would I have preferred that Higuruma was in Miwa's place and that Miwa was the one with the sword powerful enough to bring truth and clarity?

As this chapter showed, I'm not sure Miwa has ever demonstrated that she could be that person at this exact moment in time. And I personally like to think that given time and her own spinoff series "useless Miwa learns she's not useless", she would develop her sense of self further. But more importantly, as I feel about the other characters, I ope that she would learn to love herself as she is.

How's that for ghostwriting?

Anyways... guys... I need to stop getting involved in futile arguments lmao. I know I'm not convincing anyone of anything and I'm not trying to because I respect people don't like what I like. All I can do is share my perspective of things.

Actually. Why did I write all of this? idk. I wanted to share that I like the idea that Miwa has to learn from her mistake and the possibility of where her character goes from there, whether we see it or not. It's all written between the lines as per usual because I have to agree that Gege only has so many panels and a big cast of characters who may or may not be what he wants to focus on.

Which is something that happens with a lot of manga.

Have a happy jjk-break week. Here's to hoping we survive it.

[startwithbrooklyn]

THE GREAT ND REWATCH OF 2021 / SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 // the kidnapping

okay yall heres this! see you in two weeks! 🥳

-ik george called everyone to help but i get such a thrill from people asking nancy for help bc they know she can do it. (its a real contest sometimes between nancy over-inserting herself into peoples business bc she thinks she knows better vs her actually being the one to call)

-maybe an interesting facet to nancys tendency to lack emotion comes from mystery solving- being able to stay calm and objective when people like george are frantic and anxious. think rationally. search for clues. follow logical footsteps. this is where her predicting human behavior scientifically and not socially prevails. you might think youre behaving rationally but it takes a cold clocked brain to really do it (the 'wall' that carson mentioned)**

-owen is so cute lmfaoooo

-once again bess's particular attention to detail wins the day

-they totally stole this sharpie + back of menu thing from victoria

-wonder what gomber asked for from simon

-chief has absolutely zero hesitation to sharing things with nancy now lmfaoooo

-"just dont slow me down" all im picturing is nancys face when carson says how bout a father juxtaposed with s2 ryan and carson stalking her and pretending to hide in their car when they got caught

-"commentary rescinded" lmfaoooo we all judge him for the weekend sweater vests but he is undoubtedly the most capable character on this show for taking care of a kid

-"your memory is relentlessly specific" would honestly hate to be raising that kid lmfaoooo no winning arguments here. thats probably why carson is the way he is though, soft, small, open and unguarded - no reason to start arguments. perfect calm happy family

-okay lbh. was karen a dick for snooping in nancys room y/n?

-nancys face when carson offers advice on the phone call lmaoooo

-**so now wonder if that "calm" carson mentions as a survival mechanism is manufactured. that would be an intereting parallel to s2 premiere when nancy confesses to the wraith that shes afraid. then with nancys constant conflict of wheter to engage with mysteries or not when they are such a part of her is brought to scintillating focus if we consider this cold clocked calm during panic is actually based in something painful and tragic, and the real truth is that nancy is too afraid to even solve mysteries anymore (afraid of what tho? herself? hurting others? her own mystery-solving ability?)

-carson still has his supernatural nope hat on

-her frustration with her "memory in pieces" become so much more interesting considering it as a control mechanism- nancy is obsessively in control of what shes thinking and feeling and executes that control firmly in pretext of solving mysteries - she controls and solves them, they dont control her. like cancer was "the mystery she couldnt solve" and she just spiraled from there. like in the first ep she says "it was more than just a hobby, it was part of who i was" past tense. shes trying to reclaim parts of her identity that she thought were unshakeable, like mysteries and who her parents are, yet these parts of her identity that she still picks up and engages with turn out to be destructive both to herself and those around her. does her ability to draw the line differ? like the mysteries are a comfort/lacking stillness to avoid dealing with emptiness: did mysteries always hurt her parents/friends/others when she was younger, and she just never noticed because their lives werent permanently damaged like nancys picking apart these secrets did?

-"superstitions and rituals are all part of human behavior, its not proof of something inhuman" -discuss 🧐

-this ep and that hug made me ship george/nick

-love this bess/owen bonding time 💙

-love the contrast between nancy rejecting nicks help to george with "my trucks outside" (THE TRUCK omg foreshdowinggggg)

-damn casting did a good job finding a creepy bitch to play moira (shes sooooo weak tho lmfaooo)

-wonder if mcginnis can sense anything when gombers arm starts to bleed

-"TED!" "...yeah?" 😰😴🤦🏼‍♀️😂

-wonder what a relief nicks help is to george when even her own mother cant help her

-love this branch swinging bit for nancy. one hit for every memory taken! reminds me of our good ole tazer ep. and loving these physical outbursts from nancy.

-carson saying "i'm here" just like he did on the bluffs 😭

-UNPOPULAR OPINION: "just out of curiosity..." and gomber indulges her! what an interesting weirdcreep nancy/gomber (+simon as an extension) for a what if scenario. "i can still smell him on you" 👀...something about the children who were chosen first as little girls that come back as grown women (like an addiction/cant stay away/been marked/curiosity)

-owen holding bess's coat for her 🥺

-"we can enter our homes justified tonight" nancy would love that.

-irony: asking where kate will be in heaven bc lucy never made it to heaven/stuck as a ghost in purgatory (and why nancy always feels so lost bc she cant find kate bc kate's not hers)

-nancys old notebook is the same blue just like her blue car 💙😚

-mcginnis reaches out to nancy physically during/after carsons handcuffing by karen but just barely makes contact- so physical after meeting with mcginnis/him saying "work together" and seance/ceremony - now that opposing forces of mcginnis' law and nancys ability to get results have mixed and "been resolved" - emotional conflict nullified which allows for more genuine emotion/"paternal" instinct of older man-younger woman dynamic to come through (ironic since her actual parent is getting carted away)

and lastly

-"tell them you didnt kill her!" karens look at carson when he doesnt/cant say anything speaks volumes.

[coinofstone]

Mint Condition 14x04

If you follow me on the tweety you’ll know that I made a pathetic attempt at a full season re-watch starting in like… September. I got as far as the end of S5 before S15 began, but given my severe case of swiss cheese brain I decided to pause the full series re-watch there and pick up at 14x01. I figured it’ll be faster to get through S14 for a refresher and then go back to S6. Shut up my logic makes sense to me.  ANYwho, Mint Condition is probably my second favorite episode of S14 and definitely an overall series stand out for me - even tho I did have terrible nightmares after the first time I watched it. That fuckin dummy was goddamn terrifying and my subconscious was REALLY GODDAMNED SURE he was going to kill me in my sleep. I’m happy to report i had zero issues sleeping after watching it this time. :) Altho watch I just jinxed myself, since I am gonna watch again as I write this to pull quotes and screens.  You can tell I’ve been looking up recipes cuz theres a massive intro nobody gives a shit about before I get to the point of the post. NEVER FEAR! The good bits are under the cut. 

Let me just start by pointing out that while I do believe that Stuart is a mirror for Cas, The whole toxic fanboy/incel/chan troll shtick isnt reflective of Cas as a person in the way we (I) would normally judge someone like that.  I’m not sure if it’s because Davy actually sympathizes with and sees no harms in humanizing those people, or if it was for the fun of playing with a character like that, but there certainly are some parallels there - in the sense that even within his own community he’s  a misfit, rebellious, and argumentative. either way, the trench coat is pretty damning. 

Girl Sam comments that the store had been left to her and Dirk, but Stuart had been fired twice, the previous owner kept catching him stealing. But they hired him back because “he’s my friend”. That forgiveness, Stuart’s bad choices and lack of ‘impulse control’ it’s all reflective of Cas, even though it paints Cas in an unnecessarily negative light, on the surface it’s arguable but not entirely wrong. When Stuart pulls out the Panthro toy, his response is: “so angry, so handsome” and damn if that doesnt describe Dean lol.The fact that the first thing we see him do is steal this handsome, angry figure from the place it was sent is just another Dean detail. 

Hey you know who else got stabbed in the gut like that and almost died?

These two are the strongest mirror in the ep. Bonding over candy, shared fashion sense and a love of horror flicks, Dirk tells Dean (those names) that he wants to ‘watch over’ Stuart while he is unconscious, and that despite his rough edges, Stuart has been there for him, giving him a place to crash and escape his shitty father. Which, I mean, this is heavy handed as fuck, presumably to make sure the GA doesn’t miss it, but seriously all this kid needs is an American classic muscle car and a love of Led Zeppelin. 

This where I 

curse my inability to gif because it’s the sublest of moments here but when Dirk asks Dean which of the All Saints Day movies is his favorite, Dean throws a quick glance over his shoulder, as if to make sure nobody is listening. He’s so used to hiding this side of himself, the nerd, the fanboy, that even though he’s a grown ass man that regularly kills supernatural evils, he instinctively looks around real quick to make sure he won’t get caught having this conversation. It’s heartbreaking, and I think, attributable entirely to Jensen - but that’s entirely spec on my part. He does this three times in this scene, before finally getting comfortable and enjoying Dirk’s company. Jesus you’d think he was engaging in some kind of elicit trade the way he’s got his head on a swivel. Poor thing. 

“growing up it was always nice to check out for while… I like to watch movies where I know the bad guys’s gonna lose.” Dean’s preferred method of escapism is relatable, sure, but  he’s also point blank telling us right here, WHY he’s been hiding out in his room watching these movies, he’s self-soothing. He’s just revealed that he was awake and drowning the entire time he was possessed by Michael, he doesn’t know why he was ‘released’ but he knows he came home to find a ‘house full of strangers’. The fact that his self care at this point is pizza, beer and movies the way he did as a kid rather than cheap whiskey, the way we’ve seen him do as an adult, probably speaks volumes to how actually affected he really is.  

Dean being the one to wrestle with the father figure - the owner of the store who taught them everything they know before his death, leaving them the business to run and then possessing the lifesize figure of a mechanic who’d been literally burned in order to get revenge on the one who’d been stealing from them - I hate the idea of a John vs Cas parallel and I don’t think it was intended to go that deep, but there’s no denying a paralell between the ghost of Jordan and John.  

The thread on these two, in my opinion, is a little thin. Beyond the ‘ha ha Sam’s a girl’ joke, and their shared science nerd bit here, the main thing really is that even though the store was left to Sam AND Dirk, it seems like Sam is the defacto leader. She’s the one we see dealing with the incoming delivery, she’s the one behind the counter, and she’s the one who called Stuart to call him out on their one star yelp review. At this point in the season, Sam Winchester is the defacto leader of the new hunter collective he’s inadvertently assembled by way of rescue hunters from Apocalypse World. She also demonstrates Sam’s usual ‘lore’ skills, figuring out that it’s the keys that the ghost is most likely tied to, and finding a chemical in the morgue to use as an accelerant to help rescue Dean. That’s literally all I’ve got on them two. 

This is random, but the significance of that poster has been bugging me since the live airing of this ep. I do not understand that reference and it’s driving me bonkers, so if anyone does, PLEASE TELL ME. 

🙃 I really hope I don’t have nightmares tonight. That mask on the dummy is fucking horrible. 

[tumblunni]

Today's thought for a Dr Maddiman fic that i probably wont ever have the skill to write, lol

Au where his wife is still alive in present day, she's just elderly and in hospital for [insert name of whatever illness]. So maddiman's redemption and re-meeting his son manages to happen in time for him to see her again.

Im thinking something like he was planning to just keep his distance cos he's scared she hates him and he could never apologise enough for everything and AAA he hasnt even successfully conquered a small continent let alone the world!!! ("Just let it go already, old man") But then she takes a turn for the worse and when she's in critical condition the head surgeon isnt there and so MADDIMAN BUSTS IN TO SAVE THE DAY! "We need a doctor!!" "I'M A DOCTOR" screams some sort of sobbing cyclops ghost, busting down the wall on the back of a giant frankenmonster...!!

So he ends up doing the impossible surgery noone could ever do, and saving her life with his yokai powers. And then he's just stuck there frozen like "oh god i should leave before she wakes up" vs "i missed her so much i want to stay forever". And he's flailing around looking to protagonist and co for help but theyre too busy running around sticking Wazzat on everybody to cover up the whole, yknow, crazy man punched thru the wall while also being a walking corpse thing.

So she ends up waking up and he's like AIYEEEEE and turns into human form cos he doesnt want to freak her out but DOUBLE AIYEEEE that would probably freak her out even more!! Cue a scene of him falling all over the place trying to put on some terrible disguise while she's got her back turned. "OH..YES...UMM..I AM DOCTOR...FRANK..?" *terrible deep voice attempt*

So we have this super awkward adorable conversation where he's like 'oh no i cant control my love!' Cos it was my headcanon that a side effect of maddiman's powers is that he's like..forced to be more emotionally honest, like he wished he could have been as a human. But its totally involuntary! Like your classic werewolf instinct to howl at the moon and eat people but instead "oh no..must...tell people i care...!!" So i mean his Maddiman personality really WAS always his true personality, but back when he was alive he hid himself away behind a thousand emotional walls of fake stoicism that only got more constrictive over the years. Yokai goofball vs human goofball who's just wearing a terrible 'i am serious man' disguise. That ruined his marriage and literally killed him! Yup! So getting superpowers based on hearts was kind of a lifesaver in his second life. God i have so many feelings for this poor guy!!!

But yeah anyway the gist is that he struggles not to blurt it out whenever he feels affection towards people now. THE CUTEST CURSE! Also itd be funny if his human form kept cracking up aka "oh no my heart is so full of love it wont stop jumping out my chest!"

So anyway we have some brief comic relief of him failing absolutely utterly at pretending to not be himself/not bursting out crying/trying to hold back his own arms from running over and hugging her/losing his heart when he gets hit with the love so hard it launches right out the window...

And at the same time its kinda melancholy cos OF COURSE his wife would actually want to see him and OF COURSE she wouldnt care that he's a monster, she'd just be happy he's back. And maybe she doesnt notice all the clearly suspicious things about this strangely dressed man (and the draft from the missing wall...) because she's just caught up in those melancholy memories. Becuse of course after a close brush with death you'd get depressed that all of your family is dead and nobody would be visitibg you at hospital EXCEPT THEY ARE AND THEYRE RIGHT HERE AND THEYRE BEING DUMBASSES (cue dr nocturne walking in in the background, seeing her, freaking out and putting on an equally terrible disguise..)

So maybe the moment that makes maddiman lose his cool is when he sees she still kept the wedding ring. POOF! Giant explosion and suddenly full yokai form right in front of everyone! "N-n-n-now dont be alarmed t-this is..I..THERES A PERFECTLY LOGICAL EXPLANATION..! OVER THERE!" *tries to jump back out the maddiman shaped hole in the wall* But of course Because Love, she manages to recognise him even as a yokai and they have a heartwarming reunion! Hoorah!

So yeah happy ending au. Coulda just said that and saved all the words, but whatever XD

[mtvswatches]

Wynonna Earp 1x10 She Wouldn’t Be Gone

Spoilers disclaimer (please read before sending messages or writing comments.)

Click here for previous recaps!

Stray thoughts

1) Bobo really has a thing for Waverly, and it’s creepy as fuck…

Waverly claimed she couldn’t wait for Wynonna to shoot him in the face, but to be frank, I really hope Bobo’s final confrontation is with Waverly instead of Wynonna. There’s so much history between them, and I feel Waverly would gain both a sense of accomplishment and some closure if she’s the one to put him down. I wonder if that’s possible, though…

Also, what’s Bobo’s plan here? Other than piss the Earps off, of course.

2) Dolls put a bug at the bar, and this is the first thing they here…

Bobo: Those Earp girls may be bangable, but they're a boil on my scrotum.

…which makes me feel super creeped out about the fact that Bobo struck up a friendship with little Waverly. Pedophile much?

3) Who the fuck was this girl, what was that mark on her face, and why was she eaten by a wolf?!

So many questions!

4) Evidence that the revenants are bisexual. Boom.

WAVERLY: They're talking about Dolls, guys! They're speculating that your penis is small!

5) I’m glad Wynonna and co were as confused as I was about Bobo buying the bar. Their assumption is that he did it to protect the revenants, given that Wynonna is not likely to kill them off in front of the bar patrons. I guess? I mean, it’s not like Wynonna hasn’t shot revenants in front of humans before… And as BTVS has taught us, no matter how weird what people witness is, they will always try to find a logical explanation to put it off their minds. So, I think getting rid of Bobo warrants a few scarred-for-life patrons…

6) So… the girl bore this Lou’s mark, who is Bobo’s number one enemy, apparently. They seem to have made some sort of pact and Lou was not supposed to cross into Bobo’s territory. And I think Lou was the wolf?

7) Uh-oh…

Bobo found the bug. That doesn’t bode well… 

8)

9) There’s absolutely NO way Wynonna didn’t see that…

10) Wait, wasn’t Whiskey Jim being tortured for information by Dolls? How did he end up in Bobo’s hands?

11) How are these two so soft and sweet and badass at the same time? My heart cannot take it…

12) I really liked how the confrontation between Wynonna and Dolls played out. At first, I thought she was honestly being vulnerable and purposefully giving him the flirty eyes and leading him on, which she has sort of been doing, and that seemed unfair to me. But she was just using his attraction to her against him in order to handcuff him to the car and find out what he was hiding.

13) So we can’t really trust anything Jim tells Wynonna and Dolls, considering Bobo instructed him to provide them with certain information. But I think there must be some truth to what he told them. There’s definitely some blood between Bobo and Lou, but I wonder if it’s really because Lou tried to overthrow Bobo. And I do have a feeling that he might be much worse than Bobo. But I’m guessing they’re not going to find them in Pine Barrens, like Jim told them…

14) This is actually some good advice…

WYNONNA: Those things are cockroaches to me.

DOLLS: Don't do that. Do not do that. I saw your eyes back there. They were cold and callous. Don't get all hard and forget that you're human. That you are you.

WYNONNA: I won't.

DOLLS: Just remember, revenants will say anything with a ticket to Hell pressed to their forehead.

15) In this episode of Man vs Car…

I love that he’s so perplexed by this gift and Wynonna’s gesture that the best use to make of it he can think of is smashing it to bits until Waverly suggests he could learn how to drive.

16) Woods 101? Always stick with your group. Amateurs…

17) Why does Wynonna always wake up in the weirdest places?

18) Is this Lou? And is he the leader of some kind of wolf cult or something?

19) Sounds accurate…

CULT GIRL: How can you tell the good from the bad?

WYNONNA: Um the good ones are usually scared. But they push past the fear, you know? And they do what's right, even when it hurts. Even when every instinct is telling them to do nothing, to survive. And the good ones are hotter.

20) Oh, I feel sorry for the cult girl, she was kind of sweet.

21) Of course, they’re caught…

22) Well, he does seem to know Bobo pretty well…

LOU: Bobo. That narcissist finally figure out that his stupid fur coat won't protect him?

23) So, the “mark” means that you’re no longer welcome in this “community.” Well, mark me down…

24) The rogue animals are coming after Wynonna, right?

WAVERLY: Every single girl on this list? Found dead, scattered around the Ghost River Triangle. Autopsies say that they were toyed with and then killed by animals that had gone rogue.

WYNONNA: Rabies?

WAVERLY: No. Just torture. Like, every single bone in their body broken, their skin licked off.

WYNONNA: This is why I don't do pets.

25) I knew that he’d be craving this after a night out in the woods…

But what the fuck is it?!

26) Wait…

Was this just a camera trick? Or is it something that he can actually do when he’s under the influence of whatever he’s been jacking up on?

27) He’s the cutest…

But was he trying to run off or something?

28) He was trying to run away. Because he doesn’t think Wynonna feels the same way as he does…

DOC: I have vanquished my enemy. I have taken her horse. I am finished here, Waverly.

WAVERLY: This was your plan the whole time.

DOC: No, this was your plan. You told me to learn to drive.

WAVERLY: I didn't mean leave Purgatory without a word!

DOC: I do hate goodbyes.

WAVERLY: Look, we need you, okay? She needs you.

DOC: She has Dolls.

WAVERLY: Can't you at least try? I mean, I'm trying with Nicole.

DOC: Difference is, she adores you back.

But I wish Waverly asking him would’ve been enough for him to decide to stay, you know? Not that I think he’s gone. God, I hope he’s not gone!

29) Wynonna’s message about what makes a person a “good one” really got through to Eve, and I love that. But… it seems a bit unrealistic that a girl who’s been part of a cult for who knows how long would turn against her leader after having a few words with an outsider, you know? I know they didn’t have enough time in one episode for them to actually develop a bond, but it would’ve been more effective if we would’ve seen them establish a connection and how Wynonna was helping her demolish the walls in her mind.

30) So, Lou is a skinwalker. I’m guessing that’s another way of saying shapeshifter?

31) In case I haven’t said it, I’m in love with Wynonna…

32) 

33) hOW THE FUCK WAS EVE ABLE TO SHOOT THE GUN?!

34) IS SHE FUCKING WILLA??!!!

DOLLS: She didn't remember anything - since Lou found her, huh?

WYNONNA: Yeah.

DOLLS: Prolonged psychological trauma can cause amnesia. She may have been brainwashed. Or she's lying.

WYNONNA: She's not lying. We thought she was dead.

DOLLS: Wynonna…

WYNONNA: We gave up. We stopped looking for her.

DOLLS: Wynonna. We don't know anything for sure. There could be 1000 reasons why Peacemaker worked in her hand, you hear me?

WYNONNA: Or there's one.

34) IT IS!!!????

36) Okay, I was not expecting that plot twist? To be honest, half-way through the episode I was feeling like it was a meh episode. Some fun moments here and there but I really didn’t see the point in this plot so far into the season. But now it all makes sense! There are two living heirs! It’s a great twist on the “chosen” mythology. I just assumed that the mythology in this show was similar to the one in BTVS, by which an Heir could only be called at the age of 27 when the previous one had already died… but this changes everything! This means that as long as they turn 27, they can all be heirs. Could this mean that Waverly could be an heir at some point? That would mean she can actually be the one to kill Bobo off! I also have so many questions about Willa. Does Wynonna’s father’s relationship with Bobo have something to do with the fact that she was taken? Did their father hand her over to them? Was she the reason Lou left town? Did the girls’ father and Bobo team up against Lou and Willa was one of the sacrifices they had to make? SO. MANY. QUESTIONS!

37) Hope you enjoyed my recap, and, as usual, if you’ve got this far, thank you for reading! If you enjoy my recaps and my blog, please consider supporting it on ko-fi.Thanks!

[divinationcentral]

General Reading.

Main Energy: Ten of Pentacles, Ace of Wands 

Well, in your everyday life, things seem to be going pretty okay. That said, you still have a new beginning coming into play. 

When we say new beginning as Tarot readers, we are referring to something new that you will be starting that creates change in your everyday life. 

Think: if you have an idea  to start something new, then you now have the determination/passion/creative insight to do so. 

Or: you get word that you have been selected for an interview. 

Or, something as simple as: you’re starting a new creative project which is going to yield you positive results. Whether that concerns your finances or not. Like, maybe you just do this thing for fun, and somehow it’s now creating a stable income for you. 

Imagine that you meet someone new? They spark an interest or passion, lust attraction - whatever it is - it drives you to do something new. It gives you incentive to initiate something new. 

Whatever it is - it adds to your current luxuries. The Ten of Pentacles refers to having stability in the home. Your foundation is good, and so you’re able to start something new and focus on it. But now it’s about creating something that you can look forward to (like a future; it’s going to be preparing you for the future in other words, so don’t take it lightly). 

Spread: 

Six of Swords 

Five of Swords

Page of Swords 

Closure, release...first words that come to mind. You are walking away from an obvious defeat. Something or someone that has victimized you. And it’s not fair, I understand. 

Walking away is the best thing you can and will do for yourself. 

You may have been skeptical at first, but now you are sure: they just played games with you. And it wasn’t even necessary. All these individuals (or singular if it’s just one), did this on purpose. 

Trust that karma has its way of finding its injustices, and rights them in its own time when they are wrong. 

Let me give you an example of this (because I am not perfect): 

I once hit a car, yes, I did. It wasn’t while driving, it wasn’t while someone was in it. It was parked. 

A couple with children was walking in front of me while I was trying to park. They couldn’t decide whether or not they wanted to cross, so I was unsure about whether or not to pass. When I finally did, I was so unfocused, I scraped the car next to me. 

I drove away, out of sheer instinct and fear (I had a new car, I was already paying so much on it, on top of having just gotten the car insurance, which was a super high payment, my driving record was set to start over, so it would go lower - so I did have a motive for not staying, and it was an incorrect one, because I was being selfish). 

No one saw me, it never came up again. 

Did I get away scot free? Yes, and no. Guess what happened to me after this? My car got towed, cost me almost 400$ to get it back. Had I just stayed there and reported it - most likely wouldn’t have cost me this much in retrospect. Maybe a couple dollars more on my insurance payment. I’m sure that’s how much it would have cost the owner of that car to get the scrape fixed and removed (it wasn’t bad, but it was a pretty bad scrape from the look of it). 

Karma finds a way to circle back around to each and everyone of us. 

It will get us all in the end.

This isn’t a threat. Nope. A lot of people like to use the name of Karma to cause threats. 

I’m asking you to clear your conscience. Say sorry to whoever you need to say it to. Say thank you for something that you need to say thank you to. 

You don’t have to say it directly to somebody, but say it to somebody. Acknowledge it. Acknowledge the good deeds of others. Acknowledge the help you’ve received, if any. Forgive your circumstances, forgive those involved. Have the sight of someone who sees a big picture. Not because you’re trying to clear yourself of anything, or forgive someone for the sake of forgiveness (because lets be honest, not all people deserve our trust or companionship), but acknowledge that it happened, and acknowledge your place in it. 

Tell yourself: I will do better. OR if you did nothing at all, that someone will take this into account, and will do better alongside you. It’s bound to happen. Things are bound to change, but seeing the big picture allows you to clear yourself from all the clutter and go “I don’t need to be in this mess, I don’t need to stress about this anymore, how do I remove myself from it? What actions can I take that will resolve this now?”

Reflect on your misdeeds, your positive deeds...take them all into account and say: I have responsibilities. I am accountable for all my misgivings, but also for all my good qualities. I help people, and people depend on me (someone has to). I am doing everything in my current capabilities to live justly. But, I could use some guidance. 

I am human, and I make mistakes. I forgive myself for that, and am grateful for all my blessings. 

Release attachments to things that have been long overdue. Understand that we are all connected to each other someway/somehow, and that people who pretend to be good, do the most harm, and exact the most punishment (not because I said so, but because that is the truth). 

Don’t lie to yourself. Be honest, and live from this moment on, unbothered by the inconsistencies of someone’s nature. Accept they are who they say they are at face value, and when they present differently - accept that too. Use it as knowledge to make a conclusion, give yourself closure, and just “leave it to God” as they say, if you can’t just leave it to the logic to say “You know what? That is just a bad person, for whatever reason - they hurt me.” And the person may not have intended to. Accept the truth, and walk away. That person has to deal with their own karmic misgivings. Whether they apologize to you or instead choose to pay the price or keep on lying/stealing/cheating/hurting - is none of your concern (it’s not your business, unless you want to continue to associate yourself to someone that has mistreated you, and may continue to). 

What you choose to do, and whether you accept a person’s apology or welcome them back into your life: again, is the power of choice. The power of acknowledging your part in what happens moving forward (be that good or bad). It’s not about blame, but understanding that you can make mistakes with the greatest of intentions. And it’s not solely based on what you do, it doesn’t rely just on you, but also the other person involved. Will they tell you the truth? Are they going to act from a place of sincerity? Will they treat you better? Are they going to change their behavior? 

Clear your conscience. What did you do to partake in what has happened? Let it go. Forgive yourself. Forgive the other party if you have to (but this is mainly if the offense is forgivable - otherwise, forgive yourself for any guilt you might be feeling, regardless, because it does happen; we can feel guilty for something we didn’t do). 

Don’t become the same cruelty that hurts you if that’s not who you intend to be. Live as honestly as you can. 

Move away from things that no longer concern you. Ask yourself if there’s still something you’re holding onto (whether it’s about this situation or things of the past). What are you holding onto about it? Is it the reason you keep going back to this thing? Is it really going to be benefitting you in the long run? Especially if the situation or the person (and their motives) hasn’t changed? Now, of course you won’t know this unless you take a risk. But people provide you evidence. Without wanting to - they reveal their nature when you are better at discerning what is truth/fact, vs. what is a “promise.” Hold people accountable to their word if you have to. 

Past failures, people’s “good word,” an opportunity that has passed, regrets, hang ups - all of it. Try and release it now. What good is it doing you to reminisce about the past when it’s no longer here for you? When it can’t provide you answers, when it won’t tell you what to do next. 

Use your own judgement. 

You remain tethered to those ghosts, and so remain tethered to a world of failure (or whatever it is that is plaguing you constantly since this has happened). Nothing changes, surprisingly, because you don’t want it to. Not really. Not yet. 

Stop the actions you are taking that are getting you nowhere, and reflect. 

What can I do differently this time around? You don’t have to remain attached to the situation you don’t want to be attached to, but you have to release the expectation that it’s going to change or that you’re going to get fairly compensated for it (be that emotionally or monetarily, because it’s weighing you down, very personally). Because if it has not changed, chances are you need to search for something better at this time. Or at least move on from it to gain some peace of mind and obtain clarity. 

The sooner you can do all of that - the sooner things can change, improve, and even begin to make sense. 

Right now you’re too focused on what hurts - who or what hurt you. 

Example: What are you trying to obtain right now? 

Financial independence? What is the blockage? And I’m not talking about the obvious immediate one (I can’t get a different job, I can’t because of XYZ, whether xyz is someone in charge or otherwise, because that’s shifting responsibility and giving power to someone or something else and not you) - I’m talking about the subtle stuff. 

Are you feeling guilty for wanting more? Why? Why do you need this financial independence? Who is it affecting you from achieving it? Why? What are they saying to you? What are your beliefs regarding this situation? Do they serve you?  

Are you telling yourself a lie? What’s the real reason behind what you want right now? Are you trying to leave your home? Are you trying to get away from a nagging boss? Is there resentment, is there a part of you that clings on to the possibilities too much? Is there something else holding you back? Fear of the unknown, a scapegoat of some sort, like using your situation as a crutch, so you remain in a comfort zone? 

Those things. It seems really irrelevant, right? But it’s the purpose behind what you are wanting. 

That purpose needs to be free of attachments. What you want just comes to you easier that way. Because you align with it when you’re ready (and being ready means that you will be responsible for what you want to have - it isn’t always something we can actually do, we have to take that into account). 

What you want has to provide you some sort of benefit, right? Think about that benefit, and only that benefit. 

Help yourself get rid of the insecurity that has become attached to this thing. Like worrying about the worst thing that can happen if you don’t get it. 

Be honest about the short comings, and accept that there is a better way to ask for something. 

Are the actions you are taking now consistent with the reasons you want this change? 

This will help you achieve it much more easily. 

Stand behind your resolve, and don’t regret anything. 

And let me just say: you had been right to move on. It was the obvious decision. Now it’s about balancing your life to become more justly rooted in the present, to what you believe in, so you can gain back what you lost from this. 

Once you are at a stable place (meaning you are no longer constantly worried about this, or the bad situation has left your life and you are now comfortable again, in a place of stability, where you don’t feel this lack or inconsistency in your life) - you can make change, and you will have opportunity for that change.  

Don’t grumble about it. Don’t ask yourself why. Let it go, leave it be, whatever phrase you want to agree with. This isn’t about losing. It’s not even about winning. 

This is about you becoming the person (or thing, either one) that you want to be. You are simply aligning your actions to who or what that is, now. 

You are aligning yourself to who you are currently, actually. Your actions will reflect that. 

If an outcome is not the way you expected it to be: who is the real culprit? 

Face that with the utmost sincerity, honesty...And I need to remind you: I’m not talking about assigning blame. 

I’m talking about clearing your conscience, so you can become everything you say you are going to be moving forward. You need to release the attachments. So you can accept the consequences with grace. 

You make it easier on yourself, and things can come and go with ease. 

No delays. No holding onto negative thinking patterns (yes, they are patterns we can put ourselves into that don’t even need to be applied to our current situations; it’s like a memory, we can default to it when we are unsure or insecure about ourselves). Defeat that uncertainty with affirmative action and decisiveness. 

Decisiveness comes with confidence. That confidence comes from the ability to be willing to make mistakes, and the ability to accept when you are wrong about something. 

Only then can change truly happen. 

Make time. Make space for what you’re wanting. 

If the old situation isn’t or wasn't’ working...? What is there to doubt about it now. Move forward. You are going to be in a more stable place once you do.  

What are you currently telling yourself? Does it help you?

(Does it actually help you?) (Does it hurt you to maintain a facade?) (Be true to yourself, first and foremost; honesty)

[lois-sketchbook]

Story adaptation

Notes: 11/12/19 BA2a story adaptation session 3

The divided self: Id, ego, super-ego

Shame Culture and the idea of modern surveillance

 Main characters

Mr Utterson

Mr Enfield

Mr Hyde

+

The unknown doctor

The unknown girl

The girls family

 (Story told so far from Mr Uttersons POV)

Protagonist: person who is most changed and affected by the events taking place in the story,

// Jekyll

 New characters in chapter 2

Poole

Dr Hastie

C2 brief summary

Mr Utterson comments that the will suggests madness and disgrace (homosexuality, illegitimate child?)

Utterson visits Dr Lanyon hoping for fresh information

Utterson has dreams/night terrors about Jekyll and Hyde

Becomes intrigued  by Hyde and hopes to see him to uncover his identity

They meet- feelings of tension and unease

Vague conversation

Utterson visits Jekyll but is relived he is away

Hyde must be ‘the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace’

 Mr Uttersons character

-          As innocent as he appears

-          Represses natural instincts

-          Reserved

-          Takes a while to warm up to people

-          Suspecting/untrusting of others

Mr Enfields character

-          ‘as empty as a church’ – symbolic?

Mr Hydes character

-          Pale

-          Dwarfish

-          Small

-          Light-footed

-          Husky whispering broken voice

-          Plainly dressed

 Jekyll originally creates hyde to avoid social shame, hyde becomes out of control

Jekyll cannot reconcile ‘an impatient gaiety of disposition’

 Victorian man was haunted constantly by an inescapable sense of division.

Private life vs public life

Do we have a self-imposed underground?

Race, Gender, Sexuality

(Social norms, rules, consequences)

 Before the 19th century we had very different views on emotion

Appetites – base desires

Sentiments – voluntary, associated with moral behaviour

 English words related to embarrassment: discomfiture, awkwardness, mortification, humility, uneasiness, self-consciousness, shame

   How does the way language is used affect the way we perceive concepts and emotions?

The way in which phrases are used can adjust how we view the concept, for example in English we use the term ‘falling in love’ which can make you look at the concept of love in a different way as ‘falling’ is very descriptive and can be related to intensely becoming infatuated with someone.

How the English language is structured varies from other European and Latin derived languages …

 Social emotion is created by culture// can be quite dark

How one tweet can ruin your life/ Jon Ronson ted talk

 Freudian psychology

Id: instincts

Primitive, unorganised, illogical, unconscious, ‘es’

Ego: reality

Mature, reasonable, intermediary between the id and the external world, able to defer gratification

Super-ego: morality

Internalisation of cultural rules

Id: Hyde

Ego: Enfield

Super-ego: Utterson

 Hysteria: a particular set of physical symptoms with no physical cause (e.g. loss of speech, paralysis of a limb, muscle spasms) // majority of sufferers were women.

Charcot became famous for hypnotising women with hysteria, making their symptoms disappear.

Medical muses

Previously blamed on wondering womb, demonic possession, lesions of the nerves, or unexplained epidemics.

1990’s multiple personality disorder epidemic, dissociative identity disorder

Implanting false memories.

Chapter 9: ‘wrestling against the approaches of the hysteria’ (Hyde) connection to the feminine, feminine aligned.

Hiding social shame behind hypnosis (in Victorian times; e.g. falling pregnant)

Mesmerism.

Psychoanalysis: aims to unearth the id through a practise called free-association and dream analysis.

‘Avoid neurosis and perversion by repeatedly playing out your fixations through art’ Storr, 1989, p92

William deacon brodie 1741-1788: used as inspiration for Jekyll and Hyde.

Stevenson also wrote a play-write about William brodie

    Stevenson dreamt the story of Jekyll and Hyde

‘The dream is an unfulfilled wish’ Freud

Dreams are divided into manifest (details remembered) content and the latent (true meaning) content.

Dream-work - The mental processes by which desires are made acceptable to the conscious mind by being disguised as bizzar manifest content – Freudian concept

Stevenson was ‘ahead of his time’ inspiring painters, sculptors and writers to pay attention to the irrational and the unconscious mind.

Salvador dali// luis bunuel – un chien andalou 1929 – dream inspiration.

Notes 13/12/12 story adaptation session 2 notes

Chapter 3 summary

-          First time meeting Dr Jekyll

-          Jekyll tells Utterson that Lanyon is narrow minded

-          Also tells him to ‘let it sleep’ in regard to Mr Hyde

Chapter 4 summary

-          Nearly a year passes peacefully

-          Mr Hyde commits murder (kills a respectable MP)

-          The event is witnessed and strangely described

-          Full moon (link to supernatural, transformation, werewolf’s heightened emotion, easy to see action)

-          The maid servant sits at her window, falls into a dream of musing

-          ‘the moon shone on his face as he spoke’ dreaming of a man in a higher class, romanticising wealth

Hyde in a ‘great flame of anger’

Setting up a duality present in the murder scene (tranquil romanticism to brutal gore)

His death can be seen as symbolic ‘the death of innocence’ ; this murder also builds the legend of Mr Hyde, making him more of a threat, placing the other characters in more peril.

 Utterson exhibits his usual self-control (super-ego) dressing himself properly and supressing emotion before leaving the house.

They travel to Soho ‘some city in a nightmare’

-          Mr Hyde has done a runner, but the policeman is optimistic

-          Motivated by money

-          Ends on a cliff-hanger, with a clear hook for chapter 5

Homosexual subtext

Carew ‘accosts’ Hyde with a very pretty manner of politeness

-          Working class men of the era were sometimes seen as erotic objects by their aristocratic superiors

-          Mr Hyde is classless but would be read as a working-class man

-          ‘Blackmailers charter’

-          ‘buggery’ had been a criminal offence since 1533-1967

-          1921 there was an attempt to make lesbianism a criminal offence

-          The word homosexual wasn’t used in English until 1892

-          Victorians mainly used the word uranian / sexual deviancy

   The duality of Robert Louis Stevenson

-outwardly effeminate

-straight, relentlessly pursued his wife

-wealthy but dressed down

-very bad teeth

-born to strictly religious parents, but went drinking etc

-lots of travel writing

-played at lower class

-many male admirers

-no biographical evidence that Stevenson had any homosexual urges

Queer-baiting

 Gothic Horror

-          ‘the nocturnal setting, the theme of monstrosity’

-          The birth of gothic horror: architecture, literature. Castle of otranto  1764

-          Fascinated by strange places; imprisoning, free and wild

-          Sense of time; relation between the modern world and the past: the ghost

-          Power: supernatural, obscenely powerful, completely vulnerable

-          Focus on innate desires, irrational needs

-          Sexual power: perverse, weird, dangerous, un-consensual, same-sex

-          The uncanny: new vs archaic/strange, but familiar; figures that look human but are not e.g. dolls, wax figures.

-          The sublime; awesome, overwhelming, terrifying

-          Crisis; gothic horror tends to arise in political change

-          The supernatural and the real

Inspired by dreams,

Mr Hyde represents the primitive past/ pre civilised human

No one can ever quite describe Mr Hyde

 If you’re writing a horror film bring your own fears in to make the description of terror more real and convincing to the audience- harness the techniques of the power of the uncanny- make it un-secret- give the viewer time to feel the fear- make it unhomely/strange.

 Birth of the city/ the urban gothic

-          Jekyll and hyde was the first urban gothic

-          London was the largest city in the world

-          Mid 1800’s there was a flux of people moving from the country to the city; many living in slums with no sanitation

-          Some people read into the book as more like Edenborough

-          Child labour was common at this time (as young as 3)

The evil within

-          Intrinsic

-          ‘curled around the very heart of the respectable middleclass norm’

-          Something shameful and hidden

-          How do you destroy it if it is within you?

-          Middle class Victorians had a great fear that sexual depravity and other kinds of decay would pass from the nocturnal world to the safe space of the home

-          STD’s and repercussions

-          City described as an equal source of desolation and menace

-          Artists used sublimation to heal their neurosis through art and literature (Freud)

The urban laboratory and the strange science of the mind

-          ‘what the scientist tends more and more to dabble with is the mind’

-          Table turning; people place their hands on the table, encouraging a spiritual entity to move the table 1852

-          Fox sisters

-          Questioning boundaries, the occult

-          Suspense of disbelief, advancing technology, so why not spirituality?

-          Lead to the belief that science and the occult were very close

-          The dual-brain theory; divided into two separate hemispheres that could be two separate personalities or soul/spirit // left=logic, right=emotional

-          Women were seen as very right brained in Victorian times

Sergeant F: the uncanny quality of the double

-          Ordinarily kind

-          Displayed multiplex personality (DID) when altered

-          Caused by injuries

-          Displayed personality changes

Victorians also believed that your personality could be read in the shape of your skull; meaning you could be born criminal, inferior, unsuccessful. This allowed the inequality in the society to continue.

Phrenology 1796

Used to support racist and classist concepts

    ‘The professional sickist’

-          Stevenson wrote a lot in bed whilst ill

-          Married a hypochondriac woman

-          ‘the strange case’ of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

-          Jekyll and Hyde is both physician and patient // doctor becomes patient

The burke and hare murders

 Handwritten lecture notes and idea generation:

DoSomething.org. (n.d.). 11 Facts About Circus Animal Abuse. [online] Available at: https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-circus-animal-abuse [Accessed 17 Jan. 2020].

Burton, L. and Burton, L. (n.d.). The Cycle of Violence | Understanding Domestic Abuse. [online] The Hub | High Speed Training. Available at: https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/domestic-abuse-facts/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2020].

Carter, A., Acocella, J. (1979). The bloody chamber and other stories.

PETA. (n.d.). Circuses: Three Rings of Abuse | PETA. [online] Available at: https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-in-entertainment/animals-used-entertainment-factsheets/circuses-three-rings-abuse/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].

Ed S, T. (2018). A psychology of the film. [online] Nature.com. Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-018-0111-y [Accessed 14 Jan. 2020].

Garden, H., HowStuffWorks, Entertainment, Arts and Arts (n.d.). 10 Circus Acts That Have Withstood the Test of Time. [online] HowStuffWorks. Available at: https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/arts/circus-arts/10-circus-acts-that-have-withstood-test-time10.htm [Accessed 12 Jan. 2020].

Hesse, H. and Creighton, B. (1927). Steppenwolf.

Historyofcircus.com. (n.d.). History of Circus - From Ancient to First Modern Circus. [online] Available at: http://www.historyofcircus.com/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2020].

Industrial Scripts®. (n.d.). How to Write a Screenplay: Your 30-Step Guide | Industrial Scripts®. [online] Available at: https://industrialscripts.com/how-to-write-a-screenplay/?gclid=CjwKCAiAp5nyBRABEiwApTwjXvmP__1N07FvYcNZv4bT2bqZYKpFcGNCbe3Y2Z-oC2wz9H1bekZsdhoCigwQAvD_BwE [Accessed 25 Jan. 2020].

Kadel, J. (2020). 5 Famous Ideas That Came from Dreams - The Sleep Matters Club. [online] The Sleep Matters Club. Available at: https://www.dreams.co.uk/sleep-matters-club/5-famous-ideas-that-came-from-dreams/ [Accessed 28 Jan. 2020].

Mcleod, S. (2020). What are the most interesting ideas of Sigmund Freud? | Simply Psychology. [online] Simplypsychology.org. Available at: https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html [Accessed 3 Feb. 2020].

Sarahmatthias.co.uk. (n.d.). Sawdust and Spangle-Land – a Brief History of the Circus in Germany | Sarah Matthias. [online] Available at: https://www.sarahmatthias.co.uk/articles/sawdust-and-spangle-land-a-brief-history-of-the-circus-in-germany/ [Accessed 14 Jan. 2020].

Stevenson, R. and Palpant, B. (1886). The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Healthline. (2020). Stockholm Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms, Examples. [online] Available at: https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/stockholm-syndrome#in-todays-society [Accessed 14 Jan. 2020].

yes, therapy helps!. (2020). The 6 types of visual agnosia and its symptoms - yes, therapy helps!. [online] Available at: https://en.yestherapyhelps.com/the-6-types-of-visual-agnosia-and-its-symptoms-14828 [Accessed 21 Jan. 2020].

Tsay-Vogel, M. and Krakowiak, M. (2014). [online] ResearchGate. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268079603_The_Dual_Role_of_Morally_Ambiguous_Characters_Examining_the_Effect_of_Morality_Salience_on_Narrative_Responses [Accessed 12 Jan. 2020].

HISTORY. (n.d.). Werewolf Legends. [online] Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/folklore/history-of-the-werewolf-legend [Accessed 30 Jan. 2020]

Annotation

[zayrickyear2jh]

11/12/19 BA2a Research: Session 3 Id, ego, super-ego

Today’s session: Shame culture and moral surveillance then and now?

The divided self: id, ego, super-ego. ARCHATYPE

Our cast soar chapter 1:

Main characters

Mr Utterson

Mr enfield Mr Hyde

Bit parts:

The insured doctor, The unnamed girl about 8 or 9 yrs old, the girl’s family. The story is told so far from Utterson’s POV but is he the protagonist the main character? Even critics are undecided about this. What if it became someone else’s story instead? eg. one of the bit part characters?

In chapter 2 we meet new characters.

Plot summary: Chapter 2

Utterson muses on the oddities of Jekyll’s will: it always seemed like madness, but now it suggests disgrace. Gay lover? Illegitimate child? These two scenarios are disgraceful in England victorian era.

Utterson visits Dr. Lanyon hoping for fresh information.

Back home, Utterson spends a restless night, dreaming fitfully about Jekyll and Hyde.

He being to haunt the street outside Hyde’s home, hoping to see a reason for his friend’s strange preference or bondage. What might he be looking for. Evidence of sex appeal? A family resemblance between Jekyll and Hyde?

Finally the two men meet and, like the other witness, Utterson cannot explain

Utterson pays Jekyll a visit, but is relieved  that the doctor is away from home.

Utterson reflects on Jekyll’s situation: the doctor was wold when he was young; Hyde must be the ghost of some old sin, the cancer of some concealed disgrace returning to ruin him.

He worries that time is running out poor

And he thinks of his own past:

Suggestion: on your blog try writing a scene in wchich an old iniquity (misdeed, sin) literally leaps from a Jack in the Box

What do we know about Mr. Utterson?

Can Utterson really be as innocent as he appears? According to Stevenson it’s yes

How rounded is Utterson’s character? We know very little about his private life. We do know that he represses his natural instincts whatever they may be.

As the story progresses, he becomes utter(son)

What do we know about Enfield?

On the night in question, returning home from some place at the end of the world his way lays though a part of town all lighted up as if for a procession

What do we know about Hyde?

A kind of black sneering coolness frightened too

He must be deformed somewhere he gives a strong feeling of deformity

An odd light footstep

HE was very small and plainly dresses

Extraordinary quickness

Remember: Jekyll and Hyde are the same person

Jekyll deliberately creates Hyde to behave badly and get away with it.

In the final chapter we learn that Jekyll cannot reconcile an impatient gaiety of disposition with his imperious desire to carry his head high.

‘Victorian man was haunted constantly by an inescapable sense of division. As rational and sensual being, as public and private man, as civilised and bestial creature, he found himself necessarily an actor’.

Do we have a ‘self-imposed underground?’

Contemporary society is clearly more progressive that Victorain Britain. Attitudes to race gender

But the desire for a more just society has led to necessary creation of  a new set of rules or norms.

We can see that these rules have good intensions, but equally they have consequences when they are broken.

Personal vs. social emotion

Writing about the history of emotion, Rachel Hewitt 2017 suggests that what seem to be very personal emotions are, in fact, products o

There were different categories of emotion, eg. appetites, relating to base desire such as lust and sentiments which were seen as voluntary and associated with moral behaviour.

As Hewitt notes, Angling os full of words relating to embarrassment, including: discomfiture, awkwardness, mortification, humanity, uneasiness, self-consciousness, and shame.

I think this is a very Utterson list of words

They reflect that importance to english culture of propriety decorum, politeness, and respectability.

Emotion is produced at the intersection between each person and the culture they inhabit.

Social Emotion

A 21st Century Shaming: watch with an open mind

we could get them

That’s when the anger turned to excitement

we were like unpaid shaming interns

the hunt is on for people’s shameful secrets

a clue to your secret inner evil

Chapter 1 - ‘Never saw a circle od such hateful faces.’ Story of the door

Stevenson’s Victorian gentlemen like us thins they’ve civilised themselves out of feeling base emotions. But Enfield and the others want ti kill Hyde for the arguably

Are we as civilised as we think?

A free pass to tear apart anybody we want to

A ctharthic alternative.

Sublimation

Killing being out of the question, we should make his name stink from one end of london to the other

Shaming is a substitute for what they want to do which is murder Mr. Hyde

Sulblimation: diverging a base or sexual or biological urge into something

In 1923 Freud identified the so-called ‘psychic apparatus’ of the mid

Id: instinct, primitive unorganised emotional: the realm of the ilogical

The ego: represents the conscious mind and the reality principle. Able to defer gratification. Mature and reasonable. Acts as an intermediary between the id and the external world.

The super ego: our internalisations

Frued was inspired by europe’s most famous hypnosis - Dr. Charcot at the  asylum in Paris.

Hysteria - a particular set of physical symptoms with no physical cause eg. loss of speech; paralysis of a limb; muscle spasms. Vast majority of suffers were woman.

Charcot became famous for hypnotising women with hysteria. Under hypnosis their symptoms seemed to disappear

Types of historical attack - onset of an attack and passionate stage.

Hysteria: a medical trash can

it is diagnose when no other cause could be found

variously blamed on a wandering womb, demonic possession, lesions of the nerves, or unexpected epidemics.

Doctors were frustrated and titillated in equal measure bu their hysteric patients.

Frued visited the asylum as young man. The hypnotic experiments showed him the power of the unconscious mind. Many patients seemed to develop a double personality under hypnosis.

But after Charcot’s death, some patients admitted there were only taking.

And Frued eventually stopped using hypnosis. With his colleague Josef Breuer

Frued theorised that repression of desires especially as a child could lead to fixations obsessions in later life.

Free association the totally free uncensored expression of thoughts and ideas.

If a patient could recall out loud the first instance they experience a troubling symptom the symptom would then disappear.

All art is sublimation

Frued beloved that artists and writers had a spcial skill for sublimation.

According to Frued, artists were able to avoid neurosis and perversion by repeatedly playing out these fixations through their art.

Stevenson was certainly fixated on the double life.

Wllliam Deacon Brodie

One of his acknowledged inspirations for Jekyll and Hyde was the respected Edinburgh gentleman William Deacon Brodie. He was cabinetmaker and town councillor by day and a burglar by night.

Huge crowds came to watch him hang for the crime of theft in the edinburg’s Lamarket on 1st Oct 1788.

Stevenson’s childhood room contained a cabinet designed by Brodie himself.

And the fact that Stevenson dreamt the story is even more significant from Fruedian perspective. In 1888, in a Chapter on Dreams Linehan, 2003, pp. 87-91 Stevenson wrote about the Brownie like spirits the Little people who brought him his stories while he slept.

‘The dream is a fulfilled wish’

In the Interpretation of dreams, written on 1899, Frued, described dreams as royal road.

Fruedian dream psychology

He divided dreams into two

Manifest content the remembered details of a dream.

Latent content the true meaning of a dream

Dream work - Frued description for the mental processes by which potentially disturbing and therefore repressed desires

in dream psychology Frued wrote about the curious category

He would see a room in a rich house where his friend lay asleep, dreaming and smiling at his dreams; and then the door of that room would be opened, the curtains of the bed plucked apart.

Stevenson was ahead of his time!

During the 20th century, psychoanalysis had a major effect upon both art and literature.

Dr. Jekyll and Hyde 1941

this clip a hallucination scene is from the uncensored German version, which contains extra material not included in the Us original.

“The Surrealists were obsessed with the Freudian unconscious. Surrealist art follows the logic of a dream: irrational and unpredictable.

Free association is widley used in creatin writing practice 

[emma-boo-wearing]

Polishing Off The Golden Age of Horror Games!

Now that I’m back in my own home, wrapped in a warm blanket and ALL the lights are on, I’m ready to talk....

---- Starting off with the Tropes: ----

1. Restricting Movement:

You want to move and shoot at the same time? Nope. Taking away the player’s movement, something that is often taken for granted in Video Games is an instant fear-inducing mechanic. In Resident Evil 4, and Silent Hill, you can’t shoot and move at the same time, and don’t even try to rotate and walk in one swift movement.

This is something that was referred to as Tank-Controllers, but now referred to as Player Relative Controller vs. Camera Relative Controller <- This being the one modern games use most often.

2. Body Horror:

Mutilating what was once a human into what is now...not. This is a surefire way to freak the audience out. As humans, it’s natural instinct to fear the unknown. We can sympathise with the human form it once had, and subconsciously we picture ourselves in that transformation.

3. Unstoppable Force:

Like that insatiable hunger on the 3rd day of a new diet, only more deadly...

In all seriousness, it’s someone/something that can’t be stopped by the player. It’s always after you, only to be slowed or hindered. Think Freddy (As Above) from Nightmare on Elm St, or Ustanak from Resident Evil 6. Usually something larger than the player and infinitely more powerful. It could be around any corner or merely seconds behind waiting for you to slow down. (As seen in many Slasher movies/games)

4. Supernatural

Ghosts, demons, spirits, the scary stuff. I can’t do supernatural horror. Movies like; The Grudge, The Ring...I’m going off second-hand knowledge on this one. I watched the first Paranormal, it had no credits and that alone was enough for me.

5. Gore

“Just throw some Red on it”.

The tomato sauce scenes...the ones where your parents cover your eyes and you peak through anyway but totally wish you hadn’t.

Body parts are a-flyin’, limbs are a flailin’ from the rest of the body. You know the drill. Same as the Body Horror, this gets people because of the relatability. This could be you. You are both human, after all, those could be your legs. That could’ve been your skin. We can imagine the pain and the suffering going on while we watch.

6. Zombies

The famous, ever-popular, little once-people things. The undead. The living dead etc. They began their video game hype around 2004, which meant a lapse in other horror genres but the boom was worldwide and most certainly a phenomenon.

Zombies introduced something a lot of people hadn’t felt with horror games to this point; FUN. They can be beat up, shot at, kicked around and run over and we, as players, feel no remorse. They are human-like but not enough for us to sympathise. They opened the floodgates for games like; Deadrising, Left for Dead and even Chainsaw Lollipop. Humour and Zombies went hand-in-hand and changed the horror game genre forever.

For good? I think so. Others may disagree.

7. Conclusion

Horror is the ultimate form of Game Narrative. As was drilled into us today for good reason, horror can’t afford to lose the player’s interest even for a second. The moment the player laughs at their demise, unless intentional, the mood and feel of the game is broken and CANNOT be redeemed.

Take the voice acting in Resident Evil, for example, it’s absolutely not the only culprit but it’s the most famous. Can you take it seriously? Now apply that logic to a game like Alien: Isolation. See what I’m getting at here?

Horror Games must be on top of every possibility in their Narrative Design from start to finish or it simply isn’t a Horror Game. Therefore, taking notes from the genre (Done well and learning from the mistakes of the others) and applying it to all areas of Game Design is “Learning from the Masters”.

[wingheadshellhead]

Hi, I love your blog! So I've been reading a lot of 616 stevetony lately, and I've noticed that in both canon and in a lot of fiction, Steve seems to really dislike Extremis (even before superior iron man). Why do you think that is? Even without looking at this with shipper goggles (which I always am), I think it's really strange that Steve has so much disdain for something that essentially saved one of his best friend's lives.

(THIS HAS TAKEN ME 5 BILLION YEARS BUT HERE IT IS FINALLY)

i used to be in the same boat and automatically assumed steve’s dislike of extremis was one of those fandom headcanon things that was so commonly accepted it’d basically become fact, but it’s really, actually, all 100% canon. but the comics that deal with it happen right before civil war so i think many ppl have simply forgotten or skipped over that part of tony’s timeline.

execute program is the 6-issue arc that comes right after extremis and it’s the main thing i tell everyone they have to read if they’re putting themselves thru the ringer that is 616′s civil war. it is so so important to understanding tony’s headspace and where he’s at before the events of civil war occur. 

READ EXECUTE PROGRAM. a) bc it’s absolutely crucial to tony’s side of civil war, b) the follow-through from the extremis arc is just… amazing, virtuosic. i really genuinely think it is a fascinating, excellently-written arc, c) when it gets gay it gets very gay. truST ME you do not need your shipper goggles for this at all bc guess which of the following things are canon: the sound of steve saying his voice being the only thing that snaps tony out of (likely a dissociative episode) trying to murder a villain that nearly kills peter, dyeing his hair blond when he’s going on the run, tony stopping his heart to save steve’s life. all of them !!! all canon !!!!!! 

extremis is, basically, terrifying. to the average human being, hell even the average superhuman. it’s p much unfathomable the sheer level/magnitude/scope of extremis. extremis allows tony to access and control any piece of technology on earth and even in earth’s atmosphere, he can hear satellites. it’s like having the singularity as a superpower. 

so part 1, iron man vol. 4 #7 (2006), opening issue and we have tony stopping a villain with lethal force, all while counting down the milliseconds and bidding on priceless artefacts.

now, avengers don’t kill. and tony doesn’t, he stops the man’s heart, then restarts it, basically performing defibrillation. 

and then we get this conversation: 

and after tony jets off leaving the new avengers to sort out the aftermath, we get this disturbing reminder:

a proper reread might prove me wrong but i don’t think the writers ever clarify whether this transformation in tony’s personality is due to extremis or outside manipulation (which is the culmination of execute program’s arc as i’ll go into in a bit). but when your brain is literally a machine and you Have Become more machine than human, this is the natural progression of tony’s humanity – the aspects of compassion, empathy, etc. – fading into the background to accomodate for extremis. 

extremis brings out everything about tony that steve (and possibly the world) fears most. it makes him cold and calculating, and with a brain like tony stark’s elevated by the superhuman capacity to think and react at the speed of a machine, he’s unstopppable.

part 2, iron man vol. 4 #8, we have tony nearly straight up burning a man alive for almost killing peter and laughing about it. 

he’s so deep in Destroy Mode that he doesn’t even register steve’s warning, and here i think he acts entirely out of instinct –– like extremis is thinking for him rather than his brain prompting him to do this. 

extremis is also the cause of tension between tony and the newly-formed new avengers (one of my favorite line-ups!!), he almost gets into a fight with logan and jessica has to break them up. it turns out tony is missing time in his memory, which is extremely worrying for someone w/ his level of power…

what’s so fascinating about extremis, and why we have so much to thank warren ellis for (the writer of the extremis arc), is that it is the perfect and the most logical climax of the modern iron man story. tony’s worst villain, as we’ve known since the very beginning really, has never been anyone else but himself. and in the case of extremis, it’s a highly technologically advanced version of himself that can do and be everything he’s ever dreamed of being able to achieve vs. him. 

the question extremis asks is at what cost? at what cost does technological advancement, bleeding-edge breakthroughs, and the spirit of human innovation come at? how far would tony go to become the Ideal version of himself that he sees as superior in every way? what would he sacrifice for that?

extremis represents basically the pinnacle of sci-fi tech in iron man comics, it’s why even god awful superior iron man used a 3.0 version of it as the foundation for tony’s sins. it’s the farthest point he’s ever reached, and it’s also the lowest in terms of the damage and fallout that comes from it. because ofc, tony stark can’t have nice things like this, but also bc the hubris + nature of extremis allowing its host to play god can’t exist without there being negative consequences. really b ad consequences. 

huge respect to danial & charles knauf, the authors of execute program, too, because they find a way to perfectly bring the arc full circle as ellis did with his extremis. the central villain plot revolves around ho yinsen’s son. the kid hacks extremis and uses it to control tony, sending him to subconsciously assassinate a bunch of people on his kill list, i.e. a list of all the men involved in yinsen’s death. i mean like, HOLY SHIT, an iron man plot where a literal ghost from tony’s past – a direct victim of events tony was involved in, the son of the man that sacrificed his life so iron man could be born and so tony stark could live – shows up, weaponises tony’s own body + technology and uses him to murder people who are scheduled to participate in a peace summit despite the blood on their hands and the human cost of their involvement in the weapons industry.

DRAWING PARALLELS BETWEEN YINSEN’S LIFE’S WORK AND TONY’S LIKE DEATH AND DYING WOULD BE KINDER. again bc of my memory or even regardless due to constant retcons + reruns of the iron man origin story, i don’t know if it’s ever been explicitly stated before that yinsen also got into the weapons industry in order to get the funding necessary to support his other revolutionary work. but his son literally conflates yinsen with tony here, blending them into one + the same with that final panel and it becomes very obvious that at least a small part of him blames father for entering into weapons design. if he hadn’t, he might never have been captured by the the terrorist group that wanted him and tony to build them missiles. 

also, yinsen + villains involving yinsen are a recurring theme in iron man history but can we talk abt the fact that tony has never ever let himself forget the man bc jesus christ

yinsen’s kid is killed by a SHIELD sniper, activating the dead man’s switch and unleashing all the peackeeping units tony built that are now compromised. now, tony’s no jean grey or wanda maximoff but if this arc shows anything it’s not to underestimate him bc intentional or not (lmao) if he put his mind to it there’s literally no limit to the damage he could do. 

we see various heroes fighting off the peacekeeping units, and the new avengers are at the peace summit fighting a hulkbuster. 

and here it is people !!! the 23989485th time tony kills himself so steve can live. 

JUST. THE LOOK ON HIS FACE. AND THEN THIS ABSOLUTE LACK OF HESITATION:

so, yes. extremis was traumatising for pretty much every single person involved. steve has extremely good reasons for HATING extremis, even in the early stages or even if a fic is taking place before the events of execute program.

if you read the full arc, you’ll see tony running himself into the ground with his new abilities (world’s greatest multitasker can now multitask 192483958 things at once? ofc he’s going to use and abuse and exploit that), you see him spiralling and losing his grip on reality (mainly because he’s actually having dissociative episodes and losing time due to being remotely controlled to assassinate ppl but also bc of the Effect extremis is having on him). i brought up wanda and jean earlier as a casual reference but like, to put it in that kind of perspective, people just weren’t made to have this much power.

on a smaller scale, apart from eating up all of tony’s time and attention and mental health in a really bad way, it just Distances him from everyone. especially from the team. it’s Isolating, having this much going on in his brain and no one else in the world to fully understand it. 

and on steve’s side, you also have the fact that tony’s genius is both one of the things he loves and lowkey resents most about him. he has this deep-set anxiety about tony with all his brilliance and intelligence leaving him behind in the dust, or worse, laughing at him and how outdated and dim-witted he is in comparison. this is steve’s version of tony’s “i’m never going to be good enough for him”, a sentiment summed up in a quote from him as early as tales of suspense vol. 2 (1995): “yes, tony stark, a man of today and tomorrow is the man i’ll never be.” he’s so afraid of being abandoned + alienated by tony’s mind and the future that tony’s worked so tirelessly to build that might render him irrelevant. he’s scared of a future where he has no purpose, but more or just as importantly, he’s scared of becoming obsolete in tony’s life, of not being needed by tony anymore. one of the things that endeared him so much to tony, and which laid the foundations of their lifelong friendship, was the fact that from Day One (1), tony made him feel At Home. he never let him feel ashamed or isolated as The Man Out Of Time, he actively worked to make steve feel comfortable and to give him the things he needed to acclimatise and to fit himself into this brave new world. 

extremis undoes all of that. it propels tony so far and so fast into the future that it makes tony untouchable to steve. all of the ‘i can hear satellites’ stuff renders steve helpless and even more out of his depth than usual. it presses all of steve’s secret buttons and then some.

to sum this all up, and to finish my extra rambling abt tony bc u asked me about extremis and i couldn’t not finish with this:

here we have, ladies and gentlemen, everything u need to understand abt tony going into civil war. and it’s not on any of the official civil war fucking reading lists which really pisses me off because whether or not they did it on purpose the knaufs basically wrote all of execute program as the perfect precursor and characterisation groundwork for an antebellum tony stark. 

a tony stark who was just very recently manipulated against his will into assassinating people and causing a world-threatening incident that could have resulted in the deaths of thousands, including his own friends and teammates (and the love of his life), is a very different tony stark to the one ppl see in civil war #1.

what happens in stamford was an accident, too. no one meant for that to happen. tony knows first fucking hand what that means and what it feels like to carry that responsibility and guilt. his position in civil war supporting the SHRA is not only to protect the potential lives that could be lost in another stamford incident but also to protect superhumans and superheroes from ever being exploited against their will by villains to kill and hurt and destroy. 

superheroes are inherently susceptible to being used, it’s just part of the narrative convention –– a superhero is brainwashed or mind controlled or otherwise forced against their will to do something awful. and even if it’s not their fault there needs to be  accountability  for the victims. both the victims that suffer directly because of superhuman incidents but also the superheroes that become victims of ppl who abuse their powers. it’s abt protecting superheroes not just from civilians but from themselves. and if u’ve read a single comic u kno that this kinda shit happens way too often and way too easily.

sO YE S T hIS iS W HY. AND IT Ex PL AINS SO MUC H AND i j UST WISH P PL WOULD GODDAMN REA D THIS. LIKE EVERYONE WHO EVER WANTS TO SAY ANOTHER A GODDAMN THING ABOUT TONY STARK IN CIVIL WAR NEEDS TO FIRST READ EXECUTE PROGRAM FIRST OR PAY ME $10

anyway…………… one last time, i’m so so so sorry this took forever to get to. hope the wait was worth it!

[startwithbrooklyn]

THE GREAT ND REWATCH OF 2021 / SEPTEMBER 10-11, 2019 // the car crash

-"stop acting offended" oh god sis 😰🥶

-"lucy knew hudson family secrets in the past, tiffany knew hudson family secrets in the present. both of them are dead." and you ARE a hudson family secret, hes trying like a pretty little liar to keep it 😭

-"you suspect everyone of everything, you always have since you were little" 🤔 *professor voice* "the ad hominem is a fallacy of relevance where someone rejects or criticizes another person’s view on the basis of personal characteristics, background, physical appearance, or other features irrelevant to the argument at issue.

An ad hominem is more than just an insult. It’s an insult used as if it were an argument or evidence in support of a conclusion. Verbally attacking people proves nothing about the truth or falsity of their claims" https://thebestschools.org/magazine/15-logical-fallacies-know/#adhominem

-"if you keep suspecting the people closest to you of horrific crimes you're gonna end up alone" this quote becomes fascinating in the context of our future knowledge of nancys parentage foreshadowing "i've been alone my whole life" threatening nancy with solitude comes off weird. the price of being too perfect i suppose.* wonder about ryan's take on this as a parent. strangely i think she honestly wouldn't mind being alone (on some level anyway)

-wonder what exactly makes captain tom a "legend". he was featured so prominently in the press that a serial killer engaged w him and made him out to be a hero.

-"didnt want his mom to see" where was aces mom this ep and w the poisoner? wonder why they only chose to reveal her s2. maybe to give captain tom more of a feature?

-"he was letting us down" ...or just you?

-"you two are that kinda close" its been like 2 months since they met sis i guess that is 'close' to you

-"how are you and your family?" laura says that to ace in the recording --> s2 ironyyyyy

-love how mcginnis forces the nurse to update these random strangers at the hospital lmaooo

-i love how nancy kinda thinks shes the only one doing supernatural things like shes always surprised to find people who think its legit, even hannah gruen who takes it so straight faced and seriously, nancy always respects her but gives off a little "you might be taking this a bit too seriously" vibe imo

-bess w that unintentional save on the phone to nick lmaoooo

-rawley side eyes the fuck out of nancy as she literally breezes past him to get to mcginnis 😂

-wonder how mcginnis owes tom exactly

-mcginnis looks just as reluctant to admit he cares about ace as nancy does lmfaoo

-damn she knows him really well, all he communicates to her are fucking facial expressions (and her back lmao)

-"theyre not my friends" vs "i'd try anything to save my friend" - is ace the first one she calls a friend? like, the actual f word? 👀😳

-in sharp contrast to nick, george is ironically good at mysteries bc shes always suspicious of everyone

-"okay. dead lucy-" *everyone groans* 😂

-*breezes past carson in his own house* what a mood lmao

-wonder if adam beach supported this feature or if he thought it was disrespectful/cringe

-"there are many things you and i need to discuss" 👀😳🙈👗👑🤰😰🥺🤱😔

-so do we think ted has been corrupted by simon when bess opens that door orrrr was that just ted doing 8 year old things

-love this nick/bess bonding tho

-so carson-wolf, nancy-whale, george-turtle and ace-bear. wonder if those specific animal choices have any particulr meaning. 🐢"a turtle, cool" 😂

-carson definitely has his white "do not understand but dont wanna offend" face on 😭🙈

-when i first watched this ep i could not stop saying "nifty!" the whole time 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

-carson's like "okay ive had enough of indulging this make believe crap dont tell me somethings wrong w my very clearly wrong kid"

-"this is serious" lmfaooooo at this point nancy only appeases mcginnis' beliefs bc shes desperate for answers at any cost (ie "i can just ask tiffany what happened")

-wonder how long carson has worked on this cover story for when nancy inevitably asked (the fact that he got the most curious child in the world is so fucking painful yet funny)

-nancy like 😌👉🏻👈🏻"hey mom, my friend accidentally wandered into your world for a minute, could u help find her?" lmaoo

-"are we even dating?" its been a week baby chill lmaooooo

-lisbeth + hairstroking 💙

-okay bess nails her with this clothing/fashion analysis but everyone dismisses fashion so readily as frivolous that bess gets underestimated on sight

-15 years ago + "i made you that promise when you were six" = ace is 21

-"the moment he thought his father was going to die" i'll take carson - irony for 1200 alex

-wonder who tom was chasing before his crash

-"these boots dont belong" god damn george's big sister instinct activated on sight 😭

-wait how tf did she get that bear in her hand

-"you made a difference, right?" whens the last time someone told you that

-nick and bess are the weakest fucking links w mysteries lmfaoooo

-UNPOPULAR OPINION : "you're a cop!" nancy + cops - mcginnis and rawley fuck her over/view her sexually/as competition and let her down along with karen- but she likes lisbeth who is the opposite, suspected her from the beginning due to the previous people "betraying" her (she and the chief start this show in an odd place with zero trust bc she thinks she can do it better) but lisbeth passes the test; lisbeth is willing to bargain with them and doesnt question where they got the hudsons info. now nancy does not hesitate to call lisbeth for the murder of owen (ie the hand prints) and going after josh on the roof, even tells her the blunt truth about calling the agleaca (lisbeth is NOT woke to the supernatural btw) "use me" she does want to work with police, which she is infamous for not doing previously, because of her connection to bess? because they were men? karen didnt have enough power, or didnt take her seriously? what makes lisbeth so trustworthy? or is it only nancys desire to avenge owen? but she just didnt trust the other cops to get the job done- maybe she still doesnt, but at least she trusts lisbeth for the time as an authority figure when all others have failed. all cops (karen, chief and rawley) in nancy's trust lose her respect/secrets out but Lisbeth has to prove her worth to get in. maybe its something about engaging w women. i mean women can still fail her of course (lucy kind of, kate+reveal, karen) but in terms of feminist themes, the show capitalizes on these exchanges between women for the living and the dead: ghosts/demons who are male (ie simon) are pure evil (think "mr roper" at the asylum being in particular focus when it was the whole family who died) but something like the agleaca (of human origin) is made to be a sympathetic case/highlighting how women have suffered historically and are take revenge as ghosts, able to find power in death that they did not have in life, and circling back to nancy trying to give them previously denied justice through working with other women.

-"let me do it" 👀👀could it be? empathy? a sacrifice on behalf of someone you still wont call a friend?

-"killer boots." *struts like a badass with 'im a bitch, im a boss' playing in the background*

-okay lbr. how on earth did lucys dress come off her body in the ocean? like. is that legit??

-"it's just so not how i would handle things" SIS THIS SHIT COULD ALMOST PROVE YOU TWO ARE DNA RELATED FOR HOW YOU FUCKING HANDLE THINGS like nancy? are u on crack? lmfaooo carson absolutely came for u and he absolutely should have

-"i understand that impulse, it runs in the family" make it a true daily double, alex🙃

-"you stole evidence and sent it out of state because you believed it was the right thing to do" no, you just think you know better than everybody else tbh

-wowwwwwww i cant believe lisbeth really decked her but another half of me can i fucking love lisbeth

and lastly

-oh ted. 💔🥺