#I didn’t notice the parallel until I was rewatching

[moonlit-typewriter]

Episode 2 -> Episode 5

The way he says it with so much conviction the second time.

The way that it goes from being a fault of his to a strength of hers.

The way that he goes from focused on his dad seeing him succeed to focused on making sure the quest succeeds, regardless of whether he’s there when it does.

[mistyfoxxy]

Y’all let’s talk for a second. I rewatched ASIAS at the ER last night and I noticed something. Now forgive me, this might be a long post buttttt hear me out. I think of Willow wouldn’t have found out quiiittte yet that Hunter was the golden guard, the guard that Luz had talked about, she would’ve started liking Hunter. I think she actually might have developed a crush on him already, and here’s why:

On there first meeting, you know how the story goes, she’s looking for recruitments and sees Hunter playing flyer derby with a griffin for his boot. She’s immediately amazed by him. Ok? Now we haven’t had much throughout the series on Willow herself but we know she started off bullied, her best friend was forced to unfriend her- and she’s a powerful witch. She’s gained this new confidence now that she’s able to legally act on that.

Sure, he’s a little wierd upon first meeting. But their meeting towards eachother is totally parallel! They’re both confused by eachother, hunter bc she didn’t think the was to uhm.. test the recruits was deathly courses, and Willow, bc of how he thought they should test the recruits.

And then the next scene we get, where he’s showing off the flying skills to help Willow,

They both quote eachother. Not literally, but they’re impressed, even amazed by each others talents and recognize each others strengths. Both stating the the other would make a great edition/ and if there’s any others like them. Now ofc, Hunter is upset, like really upset that the so-called “best and brightest” are what she presented to him. Now that upsets her, bc she understands what it’s like to be misjudged at one point, but then she hears what she’d felt her whole life. “If you’re considered a half-a-witch like me” and she understands.

What I’m trying to say is, TOH producers and crafty and smart. They know what to create. I believe they did this parallel for a reason, I think it was for her to develop a crush on him this episode, just as I knowwwww he did as we see later on in future episodes. Now all of this stuff stuff you’ve probably picked up on your own, but I want to go to this one scene, that made me want to look into this.

AINT NOBODY ELSE IN THIS SHOT LOOKING AT HIM LIKE THAT. I think she started to like him. I think she saw this scrawny, cute, cocky, a little judgemental at first(with reason she begins to understand), having fun, she was having fun with him. I think she developed her crush then. I think she still likes him. And here’s why.

When she starts to put the pieces together after his grand introduction. She’s nervous, confused, and even upset. Very upset if you ask me. This was the golden guard LUZ had told them about. The right hand of belos that ain’t none of them like. She had let the golden guard join their team. She thought the GOLDEN GUARD was a very neat fellow. Maybe even thought he was rather cute.

She’s hurt. She immediately puts her guard up. She quotes, “I made a bad call” implying, trusting Caleb. This new guy. Someone she’s never seen before and blames herself. She put her team at risk. And even goes to quote, again another parallel from earlier in the episode, “I’m just half-a-witch-Willow” I believe at this point, she put her guard up. As seen on the following episodes, she does what she can to help him, like in the episode where the school gets ilusioned up, can’t think of the name at the moment. She saved him, her and the Emerald Entrails (except for Gus ofc) but she still had that guarded look on her face. Sure, they’ve texted back in forth on penstagram, and o think she was ok with him, but I believe she didn’t want to put her friends in danger again by trusting what he said until proof. I believe once she fully trusts him, she’ll be able to develop proper feelings without having her guard up and the blushing and nervousness will begin. But there you have it. That’s my very bad grammar, not fluent and all take on Willows crush on Hunter.

[lupon]

Water symbolism

I noticed water and drowning bring brought up a lot for a while now and I’ve been trying to figure out what it all meant. It wasn’t until I rewatched the scene of El first going in NINA that it finally clicked

“We shouldn’t have just thrown her in there like this, she’s gonna drown in there”

“She will learn to swim”

They were referring to El drowning in her trauma and bad memories her brain was blocking out. Suddenly it all started to make sense. A lot of people have noticed the same lyrics playing when both Max and Will died:

“I don’t wanna swim the ocean, I don't wanna fight the tide when it’s cold I’d like to die”

Right before Max died, one of the last things she said to Vecna was “Now I lie awake at night praying something bad will happen to me” “I want you to make me disappear” Will has also been referenced to be dealing with depression.

“Sometimes when you’re different, you feel like a mistake”

“Stop treating me like that, like everyone else does like there’s something wrong with me. It doesn’t help, it just makes me feel like more of a freak”

“Stupid. So stupid. Stupid stupid stupid”

“Because you’re my brother and I love you, and there is nothing in this world, okay, absolutely nothing that will ever change that. You got that?”

“When it’s cold I’d like to die” parallels the “He likes it cold” quote

Here’s some other times water was mentioned/referenced in the show:

“The anniversary of an event can bring back traumatic memories and sort of open up the neurological floodgates so to speak”

Bob tuned on the water which attracted the demodog to it

“I wish I could swim like dolphins, like dolphins can swim” 

Nancy was taking a shower when she was having flashbacks of the Demogorgon

Billy was taking a shower when he couldn’t fight the Mind Flayer anymore at took his first victim

Will turned on the faucet after he puked up the slug, had an episode, then turned it off

Water was dripping from a faucet when Will had an episode in his house 

Barb died in a pool

Will’s body was found in a lake

When El looked at her reelection in the water she saw the part of herself she didn’t like and screamed, compared to saying she was “pretty” and “still pretty” when she saw herself in a mirror

Dustin named the gate to the Upside Down watergate

Dustin was walking around offering injured people at the gym H2O

“Water still works” in Hoppers cabin, when the camra was panning around to show how the place had been destroyed by the Mind Flayer in s3

Heather and Billy both took a cold (He likes it cold) bath when they were flayed

*insert Heather being dragged underwater in the mind scape when she was flayed*

*insert Steve being dragged underwater into the Upside Down*

(Maybe a reach but Billy was surfing on top of the water when he was with his mom, possibly symbolizing how he was able to handle his father as long as his mom was there. Being able to “fight the tide” and “swim the ocean” until she left)

So then I got thinking about the scene in s3 when Erica wanted to drink the green liquid from the Russians:

“We can survive a long time down here without food, but if the human body doesn’t get water, it will die”

“I hate to break it to you, but this is not water”

“No but it’s a liquid and if it comes down to me drinking that shit or dying of thirst, I drink”

Then I remembered something Dustin said in s4:

“What if with each kill, he’s not simply killing them, he’s making a powerful psychic connection to his victims, a connection powerful enough to rip a hole in the fabric of time and space”

If water represents traumatic and unhappy memories, and Vecna is killing people/opening gates by showing them all of these memories, then the artificial “water” the commies made was meant to substitute that needed ingredient in order to open a gate. 

Because here’s the thing: did the gate in s1 open because El touched the Demogorgon, or did it open because El felt a extremally powerful emotion, one strong enough to rip a hole through the fabric of time and space? El was also extremally emotional when she opened a temporary gate to send One/the Demogorgon through. Vecna used people’s bad memories against them to make them feel a strong emotion in order to open gates, the reason could possibly be that he just doesn’t feel strong enough emotions to be able to do it himself. Or, maybe you need to use good memories to make a gate to the right side up world from the Upside Down, and he simply doesn’t have any. So instead he makes gates from the right side up to the Upside Down, which is why a gate appears where the victim died instead of where he himself is. After all, he isn’t the one who’s feeling a strong enough emotion to open a gate. 

Anyway back to the water theory:

There is no water in the Upside Down because the Upside Down IS the water. That’s why voices have a strange effect whenever characters are shouting/yelling and why it has a blue tint. The Upside Down is metaphorically a place where bad memories live and “fester” as Kali said in s2. Note the parallel:

Will: “It’s like they’re (the vines) are growing and spreading... killing”

Illusion Brenner: “You have a wound Eleven, a terrible wound. And it will grow, spread, and eventually, it will kill you”

El’s pain and suffering directly parallels the creatures from the Upside Down. And since water represents those thoughts and feelings, there is no water inside the Upside Down. 

So, how does this play into how they will defeat the Upside Down? Well - “I wish I could swim, like dolphins can swim” “I don’t want to swim the ocean, I don’t want to fight the tide” “she will learn to swim” How did El learn to swim? She confronted her pain and became stronger because of it. Will’s arc in s5 will likely follow the same route. In order for the characters to beat the Upside Down they need to learn how to confront feelings and memories they don’t like. Only after they do that will they be able to face the place that represents all of their pain. Erica said they would die without it because they could never learn to swim without water.  Once they all learn how to swim, the water holds no power over them.

(@will80sbyers I saw you posting about your water theory and it inspired me to finally finish this one I’ve been working on for a while. Figured you’d be interested)

[paintingformike]

I got really curious after one of your latest posts about your thoughts on bi mike vs gay mike. what's your main evidence for bi mike?

personally, I was a bi mike truther until I started my latest st rewatch a week ago. I always thought that mike had a genuine crush on el in season 1 but this time I noticed that mike didn't really show any romantic interest in her until lucas pointed out that mike likes el. before that, it was just mike being his friendly and caring self. and idk, every romantic moment between them seemed so forced to me, like mike was just doing what he thought he was supposed to be doing. and yeah, that whole dialogue before their first kiss was also weird. I haven't started season 3 yet, so maybe there will be some moments that'll show that mike is bi but for now, my only evidence of him being bi is byler/rockie parallels because vickie is clearly meant to be bi. I'm just so confused now, honestly, because I was so sure that mike is bi before this rewatch lol

sorry if some of these sentences don't make sense, my English is really bad...

nooo anon dont worry about your english, you’re perfectly understandable! to me personally i do see them portraying mike having genuine (but shallow) feelings for el via the inherently romantic tropes applied to them in s1-s2 (getting interrupted, the tiny bit of tension between them and all that), but that’s it, and the way i interpreted the painting plotline also makes me believe he had a shallow infatuation for el, but i’ve read a lot of gay mike analyses that have made me reconsider my stances on his sexuality and the byler storyline.

the byler/rockie parallels are also strong evidence of bi mike (and byler getting together in general) but it’s not really enough for me to discount the possibility of gay mike in the show considering a lot of points that make me believe they might go that route are narrative choices for his character. one example being the way he only showed interest in el after it was pointed out to him by other people, like you said, the stark contrast in how they make lucas and dustin show interest in multiple women but little to nothing from mike in comparison, they’ve also made him mirror will in this aspect (the way they both react to max in s2 compared to lucas and dustin).

season 3 was the most “i’m just doing what i think i’m supposed to do in typical het romantic relationships” season for mike because...he really was just being coached around by lucas constantly, looking totally clueless without him and most of his actions just him trying to adhere to societal expectations like getting his girlfriend a gift (?) and just. not initiating anything himself out of genuine love for el, he really needed a third party to hold his hand through navigating his relationship 😭 also the byler fight in s4 and how he said “thats because shes my girlfriend will” emphasizing the status of their relationship instead of saying something more genuine like el being important to him so obviously he’d write her letters...the majority of it was just him putting up a performance.

tbh he can still be bi and conforming to whats considered “normal” and thats what i was always firm in, but it can also be that they’re trying to portray how he really has no clue how to act when it comes to girls because he just feels no attraction to them. like the reason he needs his hand held through his relationship with a girl is because as a gay man it was never meant for him from the start, and the reason he can’t tell her he loves her is because...it was always impossible for him to feel anything towards her. he didn’t realize it at first (he wasn’t even sure of the difference between platonic and romantic before they kissed) but by s4 he was fully aware he only felt platonic care for el and was scared of losing her if he was honest about his true feelings (which explains the desert heart to heart he had with will.)

the duffers (or any other person from the writer’s room) have watched shows that portrayed internalized homophobia and characters that dated women while being cloested gay men, such as dawson’s creek and eyewitness, so that’s another factor that makes me think they could be writing mike to be gay because they’ve already gotten ideas of what it’s like, they’re not completely clueless. anyway this got too long (sorry anon i got carried away asjdksj) but the bottomline is i think both bi and gay mike have equal chances of being canon and are strong contenders in their own right, and while i used to think they wouldn’t explicitly confirm his sexuality, i realized they basically have to because they also need to clarify in the plot the true nature of mike’s feelings for el throughout their relationship and if he ever really loved her or felt attracted to her, it goes hand in hand with his sexuality arc and they can’t really just brush this over without leaving some kind of gaping hole in the storyline. mike’s gonna have to express how he really felt about el throughout their relationship so yeah...those are my two cents 👍

[woozapooza]

The Sopranos notes to self

This is a thing I do sometimes when I watch a really good show. Just some questions and themes to keep in mind when I inevitably rewatch The Sopranos. I may add to this if other ideas come to me.

Inflection points–when people had a real chance to make the right choice

Moments when characters actually do the right thing, or at least right-ish

Try to make sense of The Blue Comet (Melfi’s exit) and Kennedy and Heidi (Christopher’s death), both of which I found jarring (for very different reasons)

Character pairs to compare and contrast: Tony/Chris, Tony/Meadow, Tony/AJ, Carmela/Melfi, Silvio/Melfi, Richie/Ralphie (at first Ralphie felt to me like Richie 2.0, but he ended up being very different), Tony/Janice, AJ/Chris, AJ/Meadow, Chris/Jackie

Intra-episode character parallels and anti-parallels. (Examples that I’ve already noticed include Janice and Melfi in “Employee of the Month,” Caitlyn and Tracee in “University,” and Tony and Vito in "Moe 'n' Joe.")

Intertwining of selfish and selfless motives

In particular, why does Melfi continue to see Tony?

On the flip side, why does Tony keep coming back to Melfi?

Dreams!

Animals: Pie-O-My, Cosette, the bear, the cat in the finale, the Rottweiler in Melfi’s dream, the crow that Christopher may or may not have hallucinated, and of course the ducks

Various characters’ ethical codes or lack thereof, especially Melfi

How did Meadow go from “I hate being a Soprano” in s1 to full Soprano mode in s6?

What did Tony and Carmela do right and wrong as parents?

Parents and children in general

The Godfather and other mafia media

Happiness–when and why do characters experience it?

Responsibility, both in the sense of duty and in the sense of blame

The concept of the “good old days”

The American Dream or whatever

When characters come close to changing or making the right choice, what pulls them back?

Literally just everything to do with Melfi, especially in the first two seasons because I didn’t start to appreciate her like she deserves until season 3

Different characters’ philosophies about agency and responsibility

Walking the line between principles and realism (mainly applies to Melfi, but maybe other characters too)

“if you watch the sopranos without the Melfi parts Tony will be as bad as the other gangsters” (YouTube comment): true or false? 

The mob characters’ non-crime interests (film for Chris, animals for Tony, trains for Bobby, etc.)

Tony’s attitudes toward women, both as individuals and collectively

Role of the pool (this could be an interesting point of comparison with Breaking Bad)

Ups and downs of Tony and Christopher’s relationship

Tony repurposing other people’s words (most often Melfi’s, but others’ too)

The relationship of the civilian characters (the Cusamanos, Melfi and Richard and Kupferberg, AJ’s friends, etc) to the mob world

The different styles of therapy depicted

The stories people tell about themselves and each other. A story is true, a story is untrue…

[1960z]

the vat of acid episode isn’t one I rewatch very often ngl, like even by rnm standards that episode is just all around very dark and outside of the vat of acid joke itself I don’t find it very fun to watch.

that’s all to say I didn’t notice all the parallels between that episode and this latest one until the very end but damn it was such a genuinely cool way to show rick’s character arc throughout this season while also getting a fun callback to that joke.

the only thing I kinda worry about is that it all felt very “final” if that makes sense. like either rick’s development is considered done or something’s gonna happen next episode that pushes it back considerably and tbh if they’re gonna go with anything I’d still prefer the latter. it’s been said a lot but morty has not had a lot of agency this season and I think for the arc to be truly complete morty deserves to express how he’s felt about everything that’s happened on his own terms as well and if this was the last opportunity given to explore that then I think that’s a shame.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Tuesday, January 9

XANDER: No, no, no. You're not going out. SPIKE: I have to go. XANDER: Buffy was very clear about the not leaving of you. SPIKE: I know what the Slayer told you. It's not true. Now let me go, and I'll find a way to prove it. XANDER: OK, I'm gonna list the reasons that won't happen. One - (Spike punches hi in the nose, knocking him out) SPIKE: Ow!

~~Buffy Season 7 Episode #130: "Sleeper"~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Disaster Avoidance Strategies (Buffy, T, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure xover) by madimpossibledreamer

Up All Night (Buffy/Spike, M) by veronyxk84

finds me unafraid (Xander, T, multiple xovers) by madimpossibledreamer

When she failed her sacred duty (Buffy, Willow, G) by FPBarbieri

Beckoning Beat (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

It's you that I lie with (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

Music to my Ears (Oz/Reader, G) by CasuallyShrieking

The Depth of You (Darla/Kendra, T) by MadeInGold

A Sexy Meal (Buffy/Spike, M) by DeamonQueen

Wanting (Buffy/Giles, T) by zombiesam

Untitled (Giles, Buffy, unrated) by

Creature of the Night (Faith/OC, M) by smartycvnt

[Chaptered Fiction]

Vamp for Rent 17/18 (Spike/Xander, M) by forsaken2003

Forgiveness Doesn't Come Easy Ch. 15 (Buffy/Spike, E) by slaymesoftly

What If Love Was Enough?, Chapter 7 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Spikelover4ever

Three Little Words, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxineeden

Ressentir la peine, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, G) by Miss Kitty

Who's Pole ?, Chapter 1-2 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Desicat

Pack My Box with Five Dozen Liquor Jugs, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, E) by honeygirl51885

The Neighbor's Point of View, Chapter 75 (Buffy/Spike, ) by the_big_bad

A Waxy Gent Chuckled Over My Fab Jazzy Quips, Chapter 9 (Buffy/Spike, T) by violettathepiratequeen

Poor Man's Treacle, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, G) by mcgnagallsarmy

The Witch‛s Gift, Chapter 30 (Buffy/Spike, E) by RavenLove12

Constellations, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Maxineeden

Truth and Consequences, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, M) by JamesMFan

Truth Hurts, Chapter 5 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Geliot99

A Second Chance- Their Story, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Loup Noir

Lesson the Second, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Girlytek

Wayward Girl, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, E) by ClowniestLivEver

Love Lives Here, Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Passion4Spike

Clean Slate, Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, G) by hulettwyo

It's Easy Time, Until It's Not, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, G) by hulettwyo

The Freak Show, Chapter 8 (Buffy/Spike, E) by hulettwyo

Love Ridden, Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, E) by scratchmeout

Liquor Good, Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, E) by Girlytek

[Images, Audio & Video]

Artwork:Balthazar by drawandpaintbyfire

Artwork:Angel sketches by genericaces

Artwork:Buffy, Dawn, & Willow by pzyii

Video: AtS Women | Rid of Me by mercer-queen

[Reviews & Recaps]

PODCAST: Episode 111: Season 5 Wrap Up by Mythtaken

PODCAST: BTVS 507 - Fool For Love by Another Buffy Podcast

PODCAST: Two To Go S6 E21 by Buffy and the Art of Story

PODCAST: Episode 10 - Chocolate Hurricanes and Chicken Tender Subs (Nightmares) by The Sunnydale Diaries

[Fandom Discussions]

Day 8: Favorite Season 1 Episode. by k0nstantly-tragic

Was rewatching Homecoming earlier for unrelated reasons when I noticed a familiar name on Buffy’s list of likely voters by coraniaid

I find it so funny that in Something Blue, Spike seems to hesitate by hermyohkneegranger

This was fantastic! I picked up on an interesting parallel with watching this video. by girl4music

rating buffy characters for how disproportionate their reaction to buffy’s 3 month absence was by hauntedhikingsociety

Urban Fantasy Worldbuilding and the USA by alpaca-clouds

Two of the most critically acclaimed episodes of Buffy are episodes that I don’t really care for. by wendyliddel

If you think about it in Buffy The Vampire Slayer theres a loophole to create infinite Slayers by takato1993

Another thing that Wynonna gets right that Buffy didn’t. by girl4music

What music goes with Lilah Morgan? by Pumpkins217

What if Lilah Morgan and Jenny Calendar met? by Pumpkins217

AtS Season 4 is the worst by modeyink

Opinions on each season of AtS by Pumpkins217

How would Wesley react if Lilah had survived in season 4 by LightBlueSky55

Best ship of each season? by Pumpkins217

Joyce’s Death. Did she really need to die? by thrasherbuffy

A better villain than the Initiative? by buffysmanycoats

Pylea by pengchod

Buffy killing the knights of Byzantium by SafiraAshai

5x16 and 17 by ZealousidealMiddle13

I started watching Buffy in October, currently in mid-S6. My thoughts so far. by InnocentPerv93

Comparatively, how strong is baseline Buffy? by mbene913

Question on Illyria’s disguise (spoilers) by JellyfishDry9464

Anyone else love seeing the start of Buffy and Riley’s relationship? by Suspicious-Thing5215

Hot take: Dawn wasn't real by vasopressin334

Crack theories. by ZombiePhantom

Is there a term for how characters in BTVS speak? by Inspirational_Owl

Can we discuss the Pylea arc? by Pumpkins217

What is your favorite season? by Pumpkins217

S2E8 The Dark Age by Pumpkins217

What is your favorite season premiere in the Buffyverse? by Pumpkins217

Which seasons did you find the characters most likable? by Excellent-Durian-509

A lot of talk about Riley, but there's one thing that I haven't seen discussed... by RuthlessKittyKat

S2E17 “Passion” by Pumpkins217

“I Only Have Eyes For You” is amazing. by Pumpkins217

Any good long Buffy/Angel fics? by goodandpure

Rent by pengchod

Angel the Series on the Internet Archive by emerald447

Cordy and Angel by pengchod

Did Buffy the Vampire slayer gain any controversy when it was airing? by Toni-Cipriani

Any theories you had while watching that never came true/were proven? by Could_Be_A_Spy

Wesley’s such a heartthrob in season 4 by modeyink

Doctor Xander? by UpsettiSpaghetti16

Fred's voice by BabsLuck

Where do we go from here. by Syn_33

Submit a link to be included in the newsletter!

Join the editor team :)

[pbear]

Ranking Black Clover OPs

This is a personal ranking. All of them are actually solid OPs and I think Black Clover consistently makes good ones.

Max of ten videos to a post so the bottom ones link to the OP.

13. Stories by Snow Man (OP 11)

Not bad but it doesn’t do too much. A little basic. Kinda checks all the normal boxes.

The shot of the map is cool

You flash through a bunch of characters.

Group Black Bulls shot.

I thought they were showing flashbacks but there are episodes that revisit Kahono and Kiato, Zora’s backstory, and the Queen of Witches which is nice.

Awww Loropechika :(

Some magic and fighting shots

Yeah, it’s not outstanding

12. Eien ni Hikare (Everlasting Shine) by TOMORROW X TOGETHER (OP 12)

Starts off with some cool shots of squad members against shots of their captains (expect Yami ofc because you couldn’t fit all his kids)

Yuno finding himself surrounded by his friends in the Golden Dawn is really sweet.

Some magic fighting with the captains this time which is super cool

Asta and Yuno growing up as they run together is sweet too.

Not much that I found interesting but it looks nice

11. Gamushara by Miyuna (OP 5)

Solid but doesn’t stand out too much.

The song has grown on me from when I first watched the arc.

I was intrigued that in the opening shots of the Black Bulls, Vanessa and Finral are in different shots when they’re shown together a lot of the time. I think that’s because this point in the story is when their individual stories start getting focused.

Back to the illustrations in the grimoire which is cool.

Vanessa seeing Rouge for the first time is so touching as she realizes the power she holds.

Ending shot of the squad is always good.

Definitely more of a static OP

10. Grandeur by Snow Man (OP 13)

I love the song for this one.

The surprise watching it for the first time is that you find out Asta becomes even more buff.

And then he goes sword surfing.

Good action

Amping up the threat of the Dark Triad well

The hints at Nacht and Liebe are nice

Actually doesn’t show too many characters. The Black Bulls (as a squad) aren’t really there.

9. sky & blue by GIRLFRIEND (OP 8)

I thought this song was not appropriate for this point in the series the first time I watched it. Like, the elves are wreaking havoc and we’re having this nice little calm tune. It is a good song though.

Good action in this one.

Lots of elf trauma.

I didn’t notice the brief shots of Leo and Luck until I rewatched it to make this list, but they’re appreciated for their moments during this arc.

Lots of Asta and Yuno focus.

I feel like I don’t have much to say about it.

8. JUSTadICE by Seiko Oomori (OP 7)

I like the symbols of the squads in time to the song

Great group shot of the Black Bulls

I wasn’t sure why Grey and Gordon were both screaming but once you know, it’s great.

Mimosa in the spotlight because she’s important this arc being on a team with Asta.

Cool Zora shot.

Elf trauma.

Yami being super sus about William and William also gets this creepy shot where black hands grab him.

HENRY REVEAL

Everyone coming towards Mereoleona at the end to form the Royal Knights is nice.

Screaming Black Clover at the end is such a moment

7. rakugaki paige by Kankaku Piero (OP 6)

Lower down in terms of song for me but the visuals are damn good.

Love some of the transitions in this one.

The opening shots of different wizards in environments similar to their magic type is cool. Then, they all fade to black which is where Asta appears. Very nice.

Interesting that Asta and Yuno are reaching out to each other instead of their normal fist bump.

Lots of action in this OP and it’s great.

The transition from Finral and Langris in red to Noelle and Solid in blue is satisfying. The parallel of sibling issues.

Zora seeing his father is a good transition too.

That shot of Langris angry is scary but it transitions to Finral opening his eyes to see his friends protecting him :’)

6. Paint It Black by BiSH (OP 2)

This OP changed as the arc went on. I was skipping it on some episodes and when I decided to see it again, I had to take a step back. Then, I watched it almost every time.

I was excited for this arc because Luck was getting attention and the OP reflects this but at the split shot of him half crazy and half as we normally see him made me think “That’s concerning”

I like the red, blue and black throughout it. Very reminiscent of the rustiness of Asta’s sword too.

Watching the arc, I liked trying to identify everyone’s grimoires as they flew past at the beginning.

5. Haruka Mirai by Kankaku Piero (OP 1)

Start of the show so it’s mostly Asta and Yuno based which is fine because you haven’t met many characters yet but I prefer the ones that include more of the characters

I like that the shots of the Black Bulls and Captains are like illustrations in the pages of a grimoire.

I remember this OP making me think Magna was going to be more important than the other Black Bulls because there’s a shot of him riding on Crazy Cyclone with Asta and Noelle. Like, I thought they were going to be a trio or something.

This is the OP that they play during scenes in the show so it has some nostalgia as the first one and it shows how much Asta has grown.

Being the first OP, it hits different and has a special place, but I think there are better ones down the line.

4. Black Catcher by Vicke Blanka (OP 10)

Cool OP because there is a drastic change between its two versions

Song is really good.

The first one fits that point in the story well because it’s colorless and raining and everything seems hopeless.

Secre flying through the air as the past plays out and then a shot of Asta shows how she’s been around for years.

Cool action fighting the devil.

When light breaks through the darkness and Secre cries :’)

As for the second version…

Secre falling through the sky but she has the Black Bulls cloak on now is nice.

I like Asta running through the illustrations of all these people he’s met. It’s recalling all the adventures he’s had so far.

Creepy shot of Gordon’s family which probably jumpscared me the first time I watched it

I want to punch Damnatio in the face

Some cool action

More foreshadowing ooooooo

Another good ending shot of the Black Bulls

3. RiGHT NOW by EMPiRE (OP 9)

Hype OP which is good for this arc

DRAMATIC LIGHTING

More elf trauma

Interesting that the first shots of the Black Bulls don’t show their faces really

I like how they show the backstories of Finral, Luck, Gauche, and Noelle on backgrounds that look like their grimoires.

Really good action shots

Mereoleona and Fuegoleon are going feral

Asta breaking through the black is cool.

Oooooo foreshadowing

2. Black Rover by Vicke Blanka (OP 3)

OH BOY

This was one of the openings I already knew before watching the show and I could not wait to get to it. Having the context just made it better.

Never skipped this OP. Ever.

Song goes so hard.

I was so excited that we were going to see Yami in action

There’s also a small fight with Magna, Luck, Asta, and Noelle against these cloaked figures you assume are the Eye of the Midnight Sun. They’re the characters we mainly know so far and it’s a cool bit.

This is the OP that I feel sums up Black Clover as a series the best. Like, I would show this to someone to try and convince them to watch the show.

Guess Who Is Back by Kumi Koda (OP 4)

YESSSSSSSS

An OP I never skipped

This song goes so hard.

While Black Clover is the OP that I think sums up Black Clover, this is pure Black Bulls awesomeness. It’s so hype.

I like shots of the grimoires. They’re fun.

I love their dramatic ass poses at the beginning with the lighting shifts.

The shots of Asta, Magna, Luck, Vanessa, Finral, and Noelle going from rougher sketches to more vivid and dimensional (I don’t know how to describe this). I want to scream at this part, it’s so good.

Then, the group shot at the end as they face Vetto.

It’s just so so so so amazing and gets you excited.

[roxy206]

Or what about a Bones au where T & K were detectives or like, them being Booth and Brennan, I would love to see their dynamic translate to that scenery:0

I would see T as the Booth & K as the Brennan if that were the case. I started thinking last night about who lines up the most

But I think I really sold myself on the crossover idea tbh! I haven’t even begun to sort out all the details, but I’m thinking maybe a newly established relationship Booth & Brennan or very established Booth & Brennan vs the slow burn of T & K would be very interesting! I didn’t think about how many parallels there are until after rewatching The Parts In The Sum Of The Whole

The confessions of attraction that unravel between them & to others. The kiss that’s meant to lead to them sleeping together, but ultimately doesn’t. Knowing that it would be so much more than just sex. The way everyone can see there’s something there. Work being both a hurdle & an excuse. The intimacy that develops over time, as much as they want to think it’s platonic — as much as they need to convince themselves it’s platonic. The fierce protectiveness

There’s so much there

And I love the thought of Sweets seeing these parallels. Of Booth & Brennan noticing too & each of them mentioning something to their counterpart because they understand, because they’ve been there, because they know that fear of taking that leap, of not being enough, of risking the person who’s everything to them by taking a chance — a chance for so much more

[brave-symphonia]

I just rewatched the scene where Shirou frees Sakura, and it still gets to me so much. Like, it’s such a good scene.

There being absolutely no music at the start until Shirou tells her Rin is okay and starts advancing towards her, just letting Sakura’s cries ring out in silence.

Sakura is shown as being tied up by the Shadow, like she’s tied down by her actions as the shadow and her past as a Matou.

Shirou advancing step by step shrugging off all of Angra’s attacks, with his voice sounding so certain and confident as he walks towards Sakura.

Sakura letting the shadow attack him and using that as a reason she can’t be saved, saying she’s killed so many people and doesn’t deserve to be saved, only for Shirou to counter with, “Yeah, you took lives, so take responsibility for them.”, I love how this scene says her dying wouldn’t bring them back so she just needs to take responsibility and give meaning to what she did.

The parallel I didn’t notice before with UBW. Shirou says it’s hypocritical, but his ideal has always been to save the one he loves. It’s so different, but also so similar to the ideal he defends in UBW. It’s still hypocritical, but it’s an ideal that he can have as a complete human being.

I didn’t realize how much I loved this scene until I replayed it in the VN. I understand that they only had a limited amount of time, but I just really wish they could have perfectly adapted HF into an anime series. Like the films are great, but I love this route so much.

[desiccatedwithering]

Eddie & Steve parallels (and the pointlessness of Eddie’s death)

this was originally going to be a comment on this post: https://www.tumblr.com/whookami/688603046879657984/the-steve-proxy-a-discussion-of-an-unfulfilling

but then it became so long and unhinged that I didn’t want to inflict it on others unprompted lol

Anyway, I’ve been rewatching parts of previous seasons, and it’s been making me even more infuriated about the Eddie & Steve parallels (and how pointless Eddie’s death was), so have roughly 5k words of (probably incoherent) ranting:

Honestly, Eddie’s whole storyline is basically a shittier version of Steve’s in season one, with some parts of seasons 2 and 3 thrown in for flavor. As I said in a discord server, the Duffer brothers fucked up by letting Joseph Quinn make Eddie an appealing character comparable to Steve post season one, while sticking to their plan to treat him like season one!Steve and kill him off in Steve’s place.

[[Also, it was pointed out (by brid in the fruity four discord) that it’s very obvious how the writers wanted Eddie to be a bully, given the way Jeff, Gareth, and [unnamed dude, because they couldn’t be bothered to think of one (1) more name] act like Eddie’s lackeys.]]

Quick partial season 1 recap:

Steve and Jonathan have their fight in episode 6. In episode 7, Steve calls out Tommy and Carol for being assholes, and as he’s driving away, Tommy shouts, “That’s right. Run away, Stevie boy! Run away! Just like you always do.” [I bet you can see where this is going]

Steve goes back to clean the graffiti off of the theater and then heads to Jonathan’s house to apologize to him. He finds Nancy injured, incorrectly assumes that Jonathan hurt her, and barges in to find the house set up for demogorgon hunting, which is when Nancy threatens to shoot him to get him to leave. [side note: incredibly weird dialogue in vol 1 when Nancy said “You almost deserved it” about nearly shooting Steve. Why? Because he was understandably freaked out by the suspicious injury, insane Christmas lights, nail bat, gun, and the smell of gas, so he didn’t want to leave?]

Anyway, the demogorgon shows up while Steve is still in the house. The three of them run into Will’s room to try to lure it into a bear trap, but it disappears without stepping on the trap. They venture back into the living room, where Steve has a little freakout about how crazy this is (which Eddie’s freakout after seeing the bats for the first time parallels) and tries to call for help before Nancy snatches the phone out of his hand and throws it across the room and tells him that he needs to leave right now. [side note: Nancy will also fling the Byers’ phone in season 2, which is so funny. Nance, you could just unplug the cord. You don’t have to keep breaking their phone.]

And here’s the part that makes me truly insane: Steve runs. Nancy tells him to leave, and he listens. He’s got his car unlocked, the door open, about to get in, when he notices the lights flicker inside the house.

And he realizes that running was the wrong choice. He goes back in (completely unarmed!!), grabs the nailbat that Jonathan dropped (fucking insane that he even saw it, given the flashing lights and enormous monster getting ready to eat his girlfriend), and hits the demogorgon until it backs into the trap and they can light it on fire.

He is rewarded for choosing not to run, for choosing to stay and fight.

The second he makes that choice, he gets his Big Damn Hero moment. He saves Nancy and Jonathan, and his choice actually impacts the story. If he had left, one of them (or both) would’ve died. There’s pretty much no question about it; Jonathan was prone and the bat was out of his reach. Nancy shooting the demogorgon was enough to get its attention and make it leave Jonathan alone to target her instead, but the shots didn’t actually seem to do any real damage, and she was out of bullets anyway. Maybe Jonathan would’ve been able to get up and grab the bat to protect himself, but I doubt he would’ve been able to do it fast enough to stop Nancy from being killed.

Steve runs three times in season 1: Once from confronting Nancy when he sees her and Jonathan in her room at night and assumes that she’s cheated on him. A second time when the cops show up to break up the fight, leaving Jonathan to be arrested for a fight that Steve instigated. And a third after seeing the demogorgon for the first time.

All three times, it is the wrong choice. Running away either ends up hurting people or has the potential to do so. Each time, he has other options, which he finally realizes with the demogorgon.

Eddie also runs three times: Once after Chrissy dies. Second when the jocks find him. And finally to distract the bats.

At first, Steve was dealing with normal human problems and the consequences of his own actions; Eddie, on the other hand, was dealing with supernatural murders (and Chrissy was already dead when he ran; there’s nothing he could’ve done for her) and jocks literally out for blood.

And that third time, Steve was running away from danger, from a monster, leaving Nancy and Jonathan to fend for themselves alone. The third time Eddie runs, yes, he’s technically running away from monsters, but he’s drawing them away from Dustin and the others.

The writers gave Eddie a worse version of Steve’s season one arc by trying to make it seem like Eddie needed redemption for running/needed to take a stand and be brave, when he didn’t actually do anything wrong and didn’t have any other options available to him. And then they gave him a poorly-conceived moment of “bravery” and punished him for it. Eddie is killed for making that same choice that Steve did: to stop running and fight. And it doesn’t even have the same narrative justification. There are no consequences if Eddie continues to run, but people will literally die if Steve does.

Eddie never actually puts anyone else in harm’s way by running. He wasn’t running from the fight at the end of season four. In fact, he was running into danger. Volume 2 seemed to remove a lot of the teeth from the Upside Down, at least as far as the characters are concerned (see: Steve letting Robin go off ahead without an ounce of worry), but it’s still a world full of monsters and toxic spores, and Eddie was willingly running deeper into it, further away from the gate and safety. Steve ran from the demogorgon to protect himself. Eddie ran from the bats to protect everyone but himself. He was already being brave and trying to help the others, so he had no reason to stop running and try to fight the swarm.

And he had been brave even before that! He had already followed everyone else into the Upside Down and helped fight the bats (which Steve tried to point out, before Eddie was possessed by the Duffer brothers to tell us that we should all be shipping Stancy again), and then he chose to return to the Upside Down and act as the distraction, an objectively dangerous job. Depending on how you look at it, it might actually be the most dangerous option (excluding Max baiting Vecna, but that’s not something anyone else could do), since the Vecna team was going to be hitting him when he wouldn’t be able to fight back right away. And Eddie had seen the aftermath of a few bats attacking Steve, so he knew the damage that a whole swarm could do.

The way the writers treat Eddie’s decision to run isn’t even coherent within the narrative of the season! In episode one, during the D&D game, Eddie says, “There is no shame in running. Don’t try to be heroes.” The kids refuse to run. They decide to continue the fight, and they win. Then the Duffers proceed to shame Eddie for running constantly (instead of… idk being found with a cheerleader’s mutilated body and thrown in jail? being murdered by jocks?? genuinely don’t know what the alternatives are here, guys), but also kill him the second he decides to stop running and fight back. Like, it makes sense for Eddie to have hang-ups about running away—he’s been through something extremely traumatic—but the narrative presents that (almost) completely unchallenged. But then it also punishes him for making the “right” choice and no longer running, which is just incomprehensible.

(Also, all four of the older teens run away from the bats at the Lovers’ Lake gate, but no one is claiming that that was cowardly or the wrong choice or a mistake. They were clearly outnumbered and unprepared, so running was the only thing they could do. It was the smart decision. Sometimes you just have to run, regroup, and then tackle the problem.)

To circle back to season one!Steve for a second, it’s interesting that Tommy does call Steve out for always running away. I feel like, coming from Tommy—an outside perspective—the words hold much more weight than when Eddie talks about how he’s a coward (most people are their own worst critics, after all). Sure, Tommy and Steve were fighting, so he could’ve just been making shit up to get in Steve’s head, but it felt more like he was picking at an insecurity that Steve already had. And, honestly, Steve probably does often run away from things and avoid conflict. We know he doesn’t like violence and would rather avoid it whenever possible (highly recommend that you go read werewolfsteve’s posts about that, if you haven’t already).

Meanwhile, in season 4, we have a character who’s whole arc revolves around Running Away vs Not Running Away, yet the only person who actually talks about it is Eddie, the dude who’s been jumping from one traumatic experience to the next. He doesn’t have an accurate assessment of himself or the situation. 

Steve’s tendency to run away is less obvious at first glance (because the writers trusted us to be able to connect a single line of dialogue with what we had watched, rather than have the characters remind us of things every thirty seconds). But it’s also significantly more satisfying when Steve bucks that trend and takes a stand.

Also, “buying more time” is such a nebulous concept to risk your life for. More time for whomst? Presumably Team Flambé Vecna, but does Eddie actually know that they need more time? How will he know when their mission is completed, and he no longer needs to be a distraction? Is he just banking on the hope that killing Vecna will kill all the monsters (something there has been absolutely no evidence for so far)?

Honestly, I don’t know why Dustin and Eddie were even waiting around in the trailer in the Upside Down after they successfully got the bats’ attention. They could’ve climbed back through, and then if it seemed like the bats were losing interest, they could’ve jumped back down to resume being the distraction. They assumed that the reinforcements they added to the trailer would be strong enough to keep the bats out, so it’s not like they were standing there to defend the gate (evidence: the fact they only decided to bail after the bats started to break in).

[[Multiple people have made the argument that if Eddie had followed Dustin through the gate, the bats would’ve gone as well. Which might be the case, but we don’t actually have any super compelling evidence to support that. The bats could’ve gone through the gate at Lovers’ Lake at any point, but they didn’t.

But say that is the reasoning for why Eddie goes back out/why the two of them were just hanging out in the Upside Down trailer: Working with the information they have, there’s a decent chance that the gates would’ve closed up after killing Vecna (since we saw Chrissy’s and Fred’s closed, and Nancy would remember that the gates the demogorgon made also closed on their own), so even if some bats managed to fly through into our world, they would’ve died once the gates closed. And they would be unlikely to do widespread damage in the time it took to kill Vecna.]]

You know who does have a good “create a distraction to give others enough time to complete the mission” plotline? Steve in season 2! 

When Steve and the kids go down into the tunnels to set the vines on fire, it’s not to vaguely “buy more time.” It is, very specifically, to draw the attention of the demodogs just long enough for El to reach the gate and close it (while they hightail it out of the tunnels so that they’re not killed in the process). They had a plan and an exit strategy, and that was from a pack of feral thirteen year olds and their extremely concussed babysitter, who only woke up when they were basically at the tunnels. But Eddie, infamously tough DM, who had significantly more time to prepare, couldn’t come up with a better contingency plan than “idk start running and hope the bats miraculously die before they eat me”?

Sure, Steve and the kids could’ve tried to outrun the dogs to prolong the distraction, but they knew that was an unnecessary risk. The rewards didn’t even come close to outweighing the consequences, since you’re never going to be able to sprint faster than a dog-esque creature (or, for that matter, a bat-esque creature). They just had to trust that El would be able to get the job done with the extra time they were able to give her while staying (relatively) safe themselves.

And another parallel between Steve and Eddie: Setting the tunnels on fire leads to Steve and Dustin being the only two in danger. All the other kids make it up the rope before the pack of demodogs reaches them, but Steve and Dustin don't have time to. They don't stupidly refuse to get to safety; they have no choice. Just like with Eddie and Dustin in season 4, they’re the only two in immediate danger. Except, in season 2, the dogs just run right past them, completely ignoring them in favor of getting to El. Neither of them are bitten even a little bit.

And their distraction was necessary to the plot. Even with it, the walls by the gate were swarming with demodogs, and they nearly overwhelmed Hopper. If Steve and the Party hadn't set fire to the tunnels, El wouldn't have had time to close the gate, which would’ve led to everyone dying.

Steve and the kids go against the agreed-upon plan (since they should’ve been staying on the bench), but the narrative makes it clear that they made the right call, that it was the right decision to put themselves at risk to help the others.

Meanwhile, Eddie putting himself in the line of fire is justification for him to be killed off. And it’s not like his distraction even mattered!

Eddie’s choice was pointless to the outcome of the battle. It didn’t accomplish anything. The bats were already distracted, and even if they hadn’t been, they all died minutes after taking Eddie down. Sure, he had no way of knowing that in-universe, but if we’re talking about creating a satisfying narrative (and not just blatantly ripping off Steve’s plot from previous seasons, except worse), it’s an abysmal writing decision. There are countless other ways that he could’ve been killed off that would’ve been more compelling. Because as it is, his actions literally did not matter one way or the other.

If he had kept running, the rest of the plot would’ve been exactly the same, because it was Murray with the flamethrower that actually killed the bats. Even if the bats had lost interest in him and started flying back towards the Creel house (which would’ve at least been a reason for Eddie to stop running), they wouldn’t have made it back in time to hurt anyone. (Also, in-universe, Eddie had no idea they were about to die, so him continuing to run would’ve made more sense with his stated goal of distracting them and buying the other team more time, since the bats would’ve stayed focused on him, rather than killing him and just returning to the house.)

[[Tangent: It's baffling that the demobats all just drop dead like that. When the tunnels were set on fire in season 2, that didn't kill any of the demodogs. There's no reason why it would. Sure it's a hivemind, but that doesn't mean that killing one monster kills all the rest. It just means that the rest know where you are and will probably be drawn to you. The tunnels and the dogs were both in Hawkins, and the dogs were completely unharmed by the vines being set on fire. But I'm supposed to believe that Murray setting a few dogs on fire in Russia would kill an entire swarm of bats in the Upside Down version of Hawkins? The demogorgon that is also in Russia and also set on fire doesn’t even die from that!! It makes no sense!!!

[sub-tangent where I’m deluded: Sure, maybe the bats were killed so that Dustin could get to Eddie and they could have that final conversation (which seems unlikely since, while heart wrenching, it was pretty redundant. Eddie was just repeating things he'd said before. Except for telling Dustin he loves him, but that was improv, so not a reason for the Duffer brothers to need them to speak again). Or maybe they were killed so that they wouldn't eat him completely, keeping his body mostly intact. Like, Bob got completely fucking torn apart. Billy got stabbed by six tentacles (or whatever we're calling those things) and then got stabbed in the middle of his chest. Also, he was soaked in blood. If you look at Eddie, there are a few spots, but honestly nothing that screams “this man will die of blood loss.” (Pretty sure there’s roughly the same amount of blood on Steve’s bandages as Eddie's shirt when he dies, and Steve's injuries certainly don't slow him down at all.) So unless the bats have some kind of venom (which is pretty unlikely, given that Steve was also gnawed on), what is Eddie dying from, exactly? It’s all pretty suspicious, if you ask me… 👀]]]

Now that I’m (temporarily) done being deluded, I’m gonna veer even more off topic and rant about how Eddie’s death was truly just shock value. Like, he didn’t even fit the template of previous characters who were brought in just to be killed. Because in previous seasons, the characters that died did so after accomplishing their goals, or at the very least, in a way that moved the plot forward. Both Bob and Alexei were vital to the plot, getting the main characters just close enough to their goal to be able to figure out the rest on their own.

In Bob’s case, he solved the mystery of the tunnels by figuring out that Will’s drawings were a map of Hawkins, and he calculated the distances and figured out Hopper’s location, so they were able to save him. Then in the lab, Bob knew what he was risking when he stayed behind, but it paid off! His knowledge of BASIC allowed everyone else to make it out of the lab safely. His sacrifice wasn’t in vain. And he died while trying to escape as well, rather than doing something stupid and pointless (though he and Eddie both decided to stand still knowing there are monsters nearby, like fucking idiots). And his death then inspired the kids to be brave and go down into the tunnels and create the distraction to give El more time to close the gate. He had knowledge and skills that no one else in the group had, which were necessary for the various missions to succeed.

Alexei had insider knowledge from working on the device that was opening the gate. He told them how the machine could be shut off (and how it could be destroyed), where the keys were, and that the code to access the keys was Planck’s constant. He gave them all the pieces they needed, so even though he died, they were still able to successfully break the machine. Sure, Scoops Troop had been down in the base, but they didn’t have any idea of how the machine worked. They didn’t know where the keys were or what the passcode would be. The information that Alexei was able to provide before his death was vital to stopping the Russians and subsequently killing the flesh monster mind flayer. And his death led to both the introduction of Suzie and the Hopper-in-Russia plotline.

Eddie… didn’t do anything like that. The plot just sort of happens to him, rather than him making contributions that move things forward (aside from stealing the RV). For a season where music was the solution, the musician did a remarkable lack of saving the day. We all expected him to play Nancy’s favorite song to break her out of Vecna’s curse. But nope. No one even suggested that, and Vecna just let her go. Sure, Eddie played the guitar to distract the demobats, but his presence wasn’t actually vital. Electricity works in the Upside Down well enough for them to use a drill. They could’ve just hooked up some speakers to play music. Or anyone could’ve just strummed some random notes on the guitar; it didn’t actually have to be someone playing a legit song.

Hell, even Billy accomplished more with his death, and he’d spent two seasons being an antagonist and most of season 3 literally possessed. But he still saved El by sacrificing himself, which also led to Max’s season 4 character arc.

Eddie’s death did nothing. It changed nothing. Hardly anyone cared. The kids talked about and mourned Bob. The adults took a moment to acknowledge and visibly regret Alexei’s death. Max sobbed over Billy’s body with El and Mike right beside her and then spent a whole season grappling with her feelings about his death. Even the fake out deaths were acknowledged more: Murray asks Joyce about Hopper, and then El gets to read his speech. When El disappears, the boys all scream for her, and we see Mike sobbing in his mother’s arms. We get a lingering shot of the blanket fort still set up in the basement, and just a few minutes later, Hopper puts some eggos in the woods, all but confirming that she’s not dead anyway.

Eddie got what? Dustin crying as he died, and then Dustin talking to his uncle two days later. None of the other cast even mentioned him in passing. [excuse me while I become delusional again for a second: unless I’m remembering wrong, this is the only actual major character death seen by a single character. The only other exceptions are Hopper and Max’s fake-out deaths. (Excluding the characters that die to kick off the Upside Down stuff, like Chrissy or the guys from the newspaper in season 3.)]

Arguably, Brenner’s death fit the “new major character dies to push forward plot/character development” pattern established by previous seasons better than Eddie’s. Sure, he's not actually a new character, but he was reintroduced after being presumed dead for two seasons. And he helped El get her powers back, which let her go fight Vecna and save Max.

Honestly, I’m probably reading too much into this, but I kind of feel like they were going for a parallel between Brenner and Eddie’s deaths with “I need you to understand. Please tell me you understand. Please.” and “Say ‘I’m gonna look after them.’ Say it.” (Which would be wild since one of them is a villain and the other is one of our heroes, but whatever.)

But the closest parallel is actually Max's fake-out death.

Someone they love holding them: check. Explicitly stating or implying that they don't want to die (Eddie saying that he was finally going to graduate; fight me on this): check. Only having a single character present for the death (at least physically, since El was also mentally with Max): check. Dustin telling the others: check. (He’s actually the only one who tells other people about Max and Eddie; he tells Will and El that Max is at the hospital and Wayne about Eddie's death). [Another instance of weird dialogue: Dustin saying, “Oh God. You don’t know,” after Will and El are concerned about Lucas being in the hospital. Yeah, no shit they don’t know! They just rolled up in a random pizza van, and you have no idea that El has her powers back. Literally how would they have known about Max being in the hospital?]

And then Steve and Robin never mention either of them. Which is insane! Nancy at least gets to go to the hospital to see Max (where she and Jonathan just lurked in the back of the shot while the boys (minus Dustin) and El were by her bedside, so not really much acknowledgement, but more than we get from Steve), even if she completely ignored Eddie’s death.

Robin didn’t want to tell Eddie bad news earlier in the season because she didn’t want to see him sad. But two days is enough for her to completely get over whatever reaction she had (if any) to finding out that Eddie died? And I know we haven’t seen her interact with Max much in the show, but, really? Absolutely no concern about the teenage girl who they know died long enough for the gates to open?

And Steve Harrington! Steve, the dude who's been protecting these kids for three seasons and would rather (literally) dive head first into danger than let someone else get hurt in his place. That Steve wouldn't go to the hospital to see Max, a girl who literally died on his watch? He wouldn't even ask Dustin how she's doing? We know that they’re close. Max wrote letters to the rest of the Party, her family, and Steve. None of the other young adults got one, not Robin, not Nancy, not Jonathan. Just Steve. And Max already had a brush with death in the graveyard. And we saw how worried Steve was, how devastated he’d be if he lost her. And then we’re supposed to believe that he doesn’t bother to visit or at the very least ask about how she’s doing?

He was the adult, the oldest person there who had experience. Keeping everyone safe was his responsibility. But he wouldn’t feel any guilt about Eddie being killed and his body (presumably) being left in the Upside Down? Even if he and Eddie hadn’t bonded, he still knew that Eddie and Dustin were close friends. He knew that Dustin looked up to Eddie. And he wouldn’t even feel bad about how losing Eddie would affect him? [[unrelated, but why was Dustin, the kid with the injured leg, the one limping around giving people water? Steve, you were flipping around with open wounds in your stomach; take over water delivery and let the poor kid stand still and sort some clothes. Don’t get me wrong; I love Steve Looking Supportively At Queer Ladies, but like. Should Dustin be walking around right now??]]

[[Honestly, they’re all behaving bizarrely fine for a group of people who 1. are living in a town that has a bunch of hellmouths that opened after three to four teens were brutally murdered, killing more people and swallowing houses in the process, 2. have a friend hospitalized, in a coma, with many broken bones because they failed to kill the man psychically torturing her fast enough, and 3. had a new member of their group—who had already been unfairly blamed for murders he didn’t commit and then hunted by a mob led by his classmates—get eaten alive in a hell dimension they led him to. Genuinely cannot tell if this is just terrible writing (almost certainly) or purposefully incredibly suspicious behavior (perhaps…?)]]

tl;dr This is all an extremely long-winded way of saying: 1. There are an insane number of parallels between Steve and Eddie because the Duffer brothers said “Hey! Remember how we were gonna kill Steve in season one? What if we did that now, except create a character arc using aspects of Steve’s plotlines from seasons 1-3, let the actor give him post-s1!Steve level personality, and make it a Steve stand in so people don’t actually hunt us down and kill us.” 2. Somehow in the process of ripping off Steve’s plotlines, they managed to make them worse at every turn. 3. Eddie’s death is a Significant departure from the norm in several aspects and also parallels Max’s fake-out death, which allows me to be extremely deranged and convince myself that he’s not actually dead.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

TWD 11x21: Outpost 22 - Analysis, Part 2

Morning TD-ers! Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween. Mine was super fun. I have a lot more to say about this episode over the next few days, and I can tell a lot of people are freaking out about the Connie/Daryl interactions. I’ll address that. I promise. But what with the holiday, I’m running a bit behind and catching up on things. Give me a few days.

For now, just know we’re not at all worried about it. No reason you should be. It’s very clear that while tptb are teasing Donnie a bit, such as on TTD, it’s also a massive distraction. I’ll get to that later in the week. 

Here’s a relatively short convo between me and @wdway. We do talk about Donnie somewhat and also the significance of the Ws around the railroad tracks, which we also saw heavily in 4b.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

I watched the episode already. It was awesome. It felt a bit transitional, with lots of action, but there was also TONS of stuff for us to discuss. It was very Maggie-centric (the montage at the beginning was mostly about her) and we finally got that weird scene from the promo where she's lying with that walker (of the purplish pants) next to the tracks. What it is, is interesting. It's really a matter of the perspective of that shot doesn't show what the walker actually is. You'll understand when you watch.

(I sent this before all my pals had watched the episode. What I meant is that the walker was a child, and that wasn’t entirely clear from the shot of her lying with him next to the tracks.)

But there's tons of symbolism and a lot of callbacks to S4/Terminus. Not Terminus itself, but what leads up to it. The end of this episode feels a lot like the end of 4x15. And thinking about that, it just feels like everything is on track for Beth to return. Like, she wasn't at Terminus. She wasn't in 4x15. But if this is a retelling of that, well, then maybe the final three episodes of S11 will parallel 4x16 and 5x01.

And of course, Daryl didn't find Beth until 6-8 episodes later, depending on how you look at it. But of course, we'll be going into the spinoff, so.... Also, the Donnier's are gonna pounce all over this episode. Unfortunately. There's some Daryl/Connie interaction. Nothing that will worry us, but you know the shippers are gonna have a heyday. Oh well. Anyway, it's a great episode. Leaves us on kind of a cliffhanger of what's to come.

@wdway​:

There were a lot of numbers being thrown around in this episode. One of them, near the end, was 301=s3e1. I thought how well placed that was and what it would mean in the story. That number caught my attention because it's part of my address, haha. 

I'm going to mention one thing that if you don't already know you might want to be aware of before you rewatch. I know I certainly am going look for it, or I should say listen to it. Right as the closing credits come on the first credit is.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Oh weird. I totally didn’t notice that. I wonder who she was. Maybe one of the people may the labor camp? Or a walker, which would be the obvious thing.

@wdway:

It showed immediately as the first end credit and wasn't there for very long. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and had to go back to check it out to see if I actually saw her name. I racked my brain. Where was she? Then thought, we probably did not see her, but heard her. I think you'll know who I'm talking about, and I really don't think that will ruin anything for anyone else.

The scenes with Connie were sweet but I did not at all feel there was any romantic overtones at all. Then again, I also don't see romantic with him and Carol. I really felt that the Carylers were going to have a field day with Carol reaching over and taking Daryl's hand. That one, they will run wild with.

I think YNB is the voice on the radio with Rosita.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Ah okay. Yeah, I’m sure you’re right. That makes sense.

(This was confirmed on TTD. Yvette Nichole Brown was the voice Rosita talked to on the radio near the end.)

Yeah good point. Daryl interacting with various female characters and the shippers always freak out.

@wdway:

I also thought the writers made a point of showing Carol hug Gabriel. I didn't see a lot of difference in how she hugged him as she does Daryl. But they definitely did not have Daryl hugging Connie, that's for sure.

There's something that AK said and her portion at the end about FG and Rosita's relationship and I thought it's funny that they've never came out and said that about Carol and Ezekiel. If you don't know what I mean, I'll wait and explain maybe tomorrow.

(@wdway has a good point here. This was AK confirming their breakup. While obviously they’ve talked about Zeke and Carol’s separation, because it’s a thing on the show, they’ve never said with finality, “okay they’re broken up, now.” It’s always been a question of whether they’ll get back together again or not.)

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, I know what you mean. It was actually good to have confirmation about that, but I can't help but wonder what the point of writing it that way was. Maybe it will be clearer when we get to the final episode.

One thing that may help as far as Daryl and Connie (for those who are worried, which isn't us) is something he did with his hand. Google, "Are you alright, sign language." It’s just important to know that his motions were actually him signing to her. Nothing else. I know people *coughs* Donnie shippers *coughs* will read into it.

@wdway:

So true. But the way I saw it after that initial meeting, the writer/director kept a lot of physical space between Daryl and Connie. Enough that I thought it was odd to be so far away from each other.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, they did. They even specifically had Carol help her up. And the two of them (Daryl and Connie) didn’t interact individually after he first returned. When she talked, she talked to whole group. And maybe this goes without saying, but I’m seeing SO much Beth proxy in her.

@wdway:

Yes, I thought of Beth several times with Daryl reaction to what happened to Connie. Carol's reaction to Daryl’s too.

I'm going to watch it for a second time probably this afternoon. I think it's going to be an episode that we catch more and more each time it's watched.

twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, same. I somehow managed to pull a muscle in my neck this morning. Totally random. Guess that means I gotta lay around and watch TWD all day.  😁

@wdway:

That would definitely be the mature, grown-up thing to do. Being proactive with your health.

I really don't think this is a spoiler but even if it is me pointing it out hopefully sparks some thoughts.

S4e15 US. Daryl with Claimer Joe walking the railroad tracks. Glenn running down the railroad tracks after seeing the sign from Maggie. 

Did we ever determine what this W stands for? Is it an actual Railroad sign?

The garage the Claimers stayed in. Inside the truck with the license tag the same as the car that took Beth away. I was just struck at how much it looks like a railroad platform; I think it might have originally been one.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, it does. I noticed the W sign too. I think part of it is that this is a retelling of 4b. So, they might have included it just for that. But the W signs are called "whistle" signs. It's a reminder for the conductor to blow the train's horn as a warning before they get to a particular crossing where cars or people might be. They're not even used by all railroads anymore, what with how technology has changed. But they used to be.

I know people in the fandom have wondered before if they meant wolves, since we had the super obvious sign of the W carved into foreheads. But a whistle is also a type of music. In this case, more a noise. A warning to keep people safe. Tell them to get clear of the tracks before the train arrives. So yeah, not sure what the writers are going for here, but it's definitely interesting!

https://railroad.net/grade-crossing-horns-and-quot-w-quot-signs-t55345.html

@wdway:

Oh My Gosh, a waring of possibly danger ahead. In s4, we saw these signs before Glenn and Tara were almost taken down in the railroad tunnel by walkers. Just before finding the woman he loves, who was missing.

Daryl had the sign behind him and soon after found his missing family and was almost killed helping Rick. In the next episode "A" all of team family except for Beth was found at Terminus. Soon after (in story time not in season time) Daryl found out a clue to finding Beth. I'm loving but the W. Especially since Connie seems to be at Beth proxy.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Yeah, exactly. And while this episode felt a lot like 4x15, that means we’re coming up on the retelling of 4x16. I can’t help but think about the fact that that episode had flashbacks of Beth. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This wasn’t part of our initial conversation, but the more I think about these W signs, the more I think they foreshadow the CRM. They could definitely foreshadow bad things in the short term, as @wdway​ said. Like the tunnel Glenn and Tara went into. But overall, because they are on train tracks, I think they foreshadow a bigger baddie. In S4, that was Terminus. It’s where all of TF’s paths converged, and, while we don’t know this for certain yet, we think they might have had ties to the CRM. It might have been in a 6-degrees-of-Kevin-Bacon sort of way, I’ll admit. We just don’t know. But there were cop cars at Terminus, which suggests Grady. And we’re 99% sure Grady was linked to the CRM.

So here, in S11, I think the Ws foreshadow that TF is on the fast track to coming face to face with the CRM, just as in 4b they were on the fast track to running into Terminus/Grady/CRM. And of course with all of this, comes Beth. Hence, the train tracks in this story line are not at all a coincidence. Just wanted to throw that out there! 

@wdway:

Rick and Daryl mentioned Beth by name in 4x16, but I haven't thought about the prison flashbacks and the famous new sheriff in town scene. Great point. And we know sometime in the next couple of episodes, we will see Daryl and Judith together with her in the hat. Next Sunday seems sooo far away.

@twdmusicboxmystery:

Lol. Right? Each time the new episode ends I’m like, “Nooooooo!”

And then before the new one comes on, it’s:

@wdway:

I'm right there with you.

@twdmusicboxmystery​:

I’ll be back with more discussion tomorrow! How did everyone else like the episode?

[lydiaas]

I was doing another rewatch (again) of our little boat show and I never noticed the parallel in episode 2x4 when Sarah goes to meet Ward to tell him to choose between her and Rafe and asks him to confess and tell the truth about what happened if he wants to have her back home but he just twists everything refusing to do so and being his egoistical self protecting his own ass TO THEN LATER ON THE EPISODE seeing the scene when John B gets arrested and we have that shot in slow motion of him looking around to see Sarah, Kiara , Pope hiding from the cops scared as fuck and JJ loading the gun ready to basically get himself arrested if not shot and killed on the spot and John B just chooses to come out and turn himself over to the police. The contrast of Ward refusing to come forward to protect himself hurting Sarah in the process and not giving a shit about what’s gonna happen to innocent people involved to John B on the other hand who’d rather get arrested for something he didn’t even do rather than see the people he loves get hurt and dragged into this mess for “his” fault.

I didn’t even realize how obvious that parallel in the same episode was until today.

OOOOF OUCH, great pickup! Season 2 went off with the parallels between Ward and John B actually. I did this gifset after S2 which was a similar theme. Ward really doesn't understand what it means to act with honour and to put others above himself. Even his sacrifice in S3 was due to it really being his only option in that moment.

I know I've dragged John B for being a little selfish but, like all the characters, he's very pure of heart.

[glennethph]

I know that a lot has been said about The Goodbye Girl being a sort of parallel between the main characters. In many ways, both Ellie & Joel are The Goodbye Girl (Paula) - they have been left behind and abandoned by pepple in their lives (for whatever reason). And even if the metaphor is a little too on the nose, I agree.

But I have to bring up this one little bit that I didn’t notice until another rewatch. The ending of TGG is Paula being left again by the man she falls in love with but the twist is that he leaves his guitar with her to be restrung. She then suddenly realizes that he may be leaving her at the moment but he’s coming back because of the guitar (and her).

IMO this is echoed in Joel asking Tommy if he can ‘borrow’ his rifle. There is an unspoken promise when you say ‘borrow’ instead of asking. or just taking it. It’s a lovely fantasy….if it happens.

[gloriousevolesbian]

waitttt i didn’t notice until literally my third rewatch that in the last ep silco says “he didn’t even haggle” abt negotiating the peace with jayce which is the same thing baby ekko said abt him when he charged him double price at the beginning of the series. everything in this show is a parallel hello

[theteasetwrites]

So I’m rewatching the whole show over agin (for the fourth time😅) because I’m doing an analysis chart on Daryls character throughout the show, and since I’m hyper focused on him I’m noticing a lot more

In the first episode he’s introduced, in the scene where he pulls a knife in Rick because he chained Merle on the roof, Shane puts him in a choke hold to restrain him.

I noticed that Daryl seemed to panic. His breathing got harder, but not in a ‘I was just fighting’ way but in a fight or flight kinda way.

When he’s trying to get out of Shane’s grip, he says “choke holding is illegal” and this line strikes me as odd because Daryl isn’t one to crack a joke in this type of situation…but why would he bring up the law? They’re in an apocalypse…

After Shane let’s go, the camera switches to a wider shot but you can see Daryl in the background scoot away from Shane quickly and point at him, almost like he couldn’t believe he did that

I think the choke hold triggered his trauma from his father, and the reason he brought up that it’s illegal is because he didn’t expect Shane (a cop) to do something he only knows as brutal and life threatening

I remember later on in the series, he puts Rick in a choke hold (this whole scene was a parallel to Rick and Shane tbh), and I think this was meant to show his development and how his new family and support system could have helped heal some of that trauma.

Choke holding isnt life threatening now, it’s just a restraint to calm someone until proper communication is accessible

I’m still working my theory, this is just a rough draft of my thoughts😅 I’d love to hear what you or anyone else thinks!

Oh wow I never noticed all that! That's super interesting. I do recall that during that scene he seems more upset in a sad way than an angry way, but he doesn't really know how to deal with his emotions properly so he just resorts straight to violence. I like that he becomes better at handling those emotions as the series progresses.

I think you're definitely onto something there.