#Made before S2E5

[meaningofaeons]

-ˋˏ✄┈┈┈┈ strength in weakness

⊹ character(s) - gojo satoru ⊹ word count - 891 ⊹ notes - fem!reader, hurt/comfort, fluff, silliness, spoilers for s2e5/hidden inventory arc (premature death), reader is a teacher at jujutsu high + a sorcerer ofc, kinda ocxcanon coded im sorry, this is so rushed and dumb and AUUUGHHHH

I....... I caved (ﾐዎ ﻌ ዎﾐ) this man does so many things to me and after seeing the last frame in the ep where his eyes looked a lil red (im including a pic at the end.) I had to write this up. also im so sorry this is like 110% me just turning my oc x gojo into a drabble lmfao LOVE YALL

"Gojo-sensei!"

"Ah, he's awake!"

"Hey, that's one of those expensive chairs, isn't it?!"

"Please don't fall asleep after summoning all of us here."

You stood idly by as your students pestered Satoru, arms crossed firmly in front of your chest. The man only smirked a bit, lifting his blindfold just enough to give Megumi a look.

In the split second before he pulled it back down, you caught sight of his eye, and faltered.

"Ha!"

"Oi, come on! My turn next!"

Yuji's bickering and Nobara's victorious, haughty laughter faded into background fuzz as you gazed after the special grade sorcerer, Megumi raising a brow at him.

"What're you smiling about?"

"Oh, nothing."

The white-haired man turned his head, and you could tell that even beneath that blindfold, he was staring straight at you.

"Ohhh~... Y/N came along too, huh?"

"L/N-sensei was with us when we remembered you had asked us to come by. She just walked us over."

"Aw, not here to see me, huh?"

You sighed, a bit of sarcasm leaking into your voice.

"As loathe as I am to hurt your delicate feelings, Satoru, I just walked the kids over."

Megumi gave his teacher serious side eye before responding. "I don't think anyone would willingly go to see you without being prompted to."

"Ouch."

You paused for a moment as Satoru turned around again, leaning down and beckoning the dark-haired student over. He listened politely to your words, and though he gave you an odd look, he walked over to Nobara and Yuji nonetheless.

"You two, let's wait outside for a bit."

"Huh?! But Kugisaki hasn't let me sit yet!"

"You can sit in the chair later. Gojo-sensei doesn't mind."

"I'll just take it from Itadori again!"

"Why, you—!"

The two eventually barreled out the door, Megumi giving you a small nod before sliding it shut behind himself. Satoru plopped himself back into his seat at that, his easy smile still ever-present.

"So you did come to see me."

"Not really," you murmured casually, earning an overdramatic, shocked gasp from the man. However, he calmed the theatrics upon the sound of your gentle footfalls, feeling your shadow fall over his seated form. "Just thought of something."

Your fingers brushed over the edges of his blindfold before you could stop yourself, but Satoru only shrugged, the barest hint of hesitation seeping into his light tone.

"Go for it."

You pushed the material up just far enough to see his eye once more, your thumb brushing over the reddened flesh beneath it. Slightly puffy, almost as if...

Right. It was around this time of year.

You recalled the time of your youth perhaps just as vividly as Satoru did, but you never were quite as close with Suguru as he was. So no matter how much you remembered, it couldn't compare to what he had seen.

"I'm starting to think you've got some less-than-professional feelings for me, L/N-sensei, what with this tender touch. Are you giving me special treatment?"

"Be serious for a moment," you scoffed, but your hand did not recoil. It made Satoru's smirk drop, even if only a bit.

Your voice was far gentler than he'd ever heard it before.

"How are you feeling?"

Perhaps it was an obvious question to ask, one with an obvious answer—regardless of how he truly felt, Satoru's answer would always be something placating, something lighthearted and in jest.

But this time, he only glanced away, blindfold still pushed up.

"Well, it was just a dream."

You nodded, hand falling away from his face. Before it could fall to your side, however, the man sitting beside you reached out, taking it gingerly.

You didn't ask any further. Prodding the issue would lead nowhere.

But your hand squeezed his just slightly, just enough for him to feel your flesh, warm and alive.

You were here. That's really all he needed in this moment of vulnerability.

"I didn't take you for the comforting type."

Your eyebrow twitched as he slipped back into that teasing lilt of his.

"I can comfort you with a nice slap to the face, if you'd prefer it."

"Not like you could touch me, anyhow~."

"You little—"

Before you could even react, Satoru had scampered to the door, slamming it open and wrapping an arm around Yuji and Megumi's shoulders, spouting some nonsense about missing his beloved students.

"What took you so long, Sensei?" Yuji asked, face scrunching as the white-haired man ruffled his hair.

"Don't you know anything, Itadori? He and L/N-sensei were in there alone, so obviously..."

Nobara's words devolved into hushed whispers as she spotted you in the corner of her eye, and you shot Satoru a warning glance as he leaned back to get a look at you.

You were sure that, in the several years you'd known one another, the man would have long since been able to recognize your eyes clearly saying, 'Don't feed a word into this, or I'll pummel you to death.'

Alas...

"Exactly right, Kugisaki! Full marks!"

"Whaaat?! Seriously?! Sensei, you and L/N-sen—"

"Don't feed them nonsense, you ingrate!" you shouted at once, chasing after a very unrepentant Satoru as he skipped around the courtyard. Megumi only grumbled out a sigh.

"So we all agree something's going on, ri—"

"Enough, Kugisaki, let's just go."

SEE WHATD I SAY!!!! HIS EYES!!!! I love you forver. .... please dont cry .................

[noneorother]

Wait, the street is wet *almost* ALL THE TIME? What is happening.

@thesherrinfordfacility shared a speculation here on the fact that at the end of S2 Episode 4, the ground is still pretty wet when Aziraphale parks the car. If we follow the logic presented in the show, that means that Crowley made a heavy downpour in the afternoon, and 12-ish hours later at 6:00am when Aziraphale parks the car coming back from Edinburgh, the streets are still very wet.

This was before I read the Rob Wilkins clue about the Bentley.

Want to know what I think is always visible and in the same frame when someone is driving the Bentley? THE STREET. The street is wet at the beginning of S2E3 in the OPENING SHOT. We get two wides after Gabriel drinks cocoa, and they are both drying after being wet. A whole 30 minutes before Crowley does the rainstorm.

But wait. There's more. Look at the street in Episode 1

This is a very wet street in full sunshine. But a few hours later when Crowley refuses to help Aziraphale and gets mad we have an almost dry street. It's raining at the 2/3 mark of episode 1 (at night) because the Bentley's windows have raindrops on them, and in the wide the pavement is wet. But then when Crowley drives through London to go back to Aziraphale, the pavement is BONE DRY

And then he parks in SOHO before turning the lights back on for Nina and Maggie and what do we have? Wet street again. But wait. There's even more. Look at the street in Episode 2 Here's the wide shot right before Shax teleports into the Bentley, and then right after when Crowley drives away.

It was raining while they were talking (and the light has changed)! Where'd all the wet go?

The archangels arrive to talk about the giant miracle and the f*cking street is wet again.

Looks like it's drying out again by the time they talk about "their car" at the end of the episode, but still full sun with some puddles.

So now we're right back to the street being wet at the beginning of S2E3 You want to know the only time so far the street is not wet AT ALL in episode 3? RIGHT BEFORE THE AWNING OF A NEW AGE.

EVEN IN EDINBURGH in S2E3. It's pretty clear that Aziraphale parking the car and walking into the Resurrectionist happens at two different times because the sidewalk is WET in the second shot.

Oh hey would you look at that BONE DRY STREET at the beginning of S2E5.

By the time we get to the ball though,

Say hello to my little friend. No not Mrs. Cheng, the wet street! Shax's demon invasion at the end of episode 5 though. You could use that sidewalk as sandpaper. So dry.

Epidsode 6 is the only consistently wet street we've seen all season.

And now I would like to go somewhere padded and scream, because I. am. loosing. it.

[moments-on-film]

Moments on Film: Carmy and Sydney’s Michelin Star Talk

This is another one of my favorite scenes between Carmen and Sydney. It’s in S2E2, and they are at his apartment, working on the new menu.

Sydney asks Carmy about the moment he got the 3 Michelin stars call when was the CDC at the restaurant in New York, the highest honor for any restaurant in the world.

What struck me about this scene, apart from the playful banter into this moment, was how Carmy immediately gushes out his answer after Sydney asks him this question. She’s genuinely interested and, literally, a little star struck, and he in turn seems like he’s so unburdened to finally be able to talk to someone about this major moment in his life.

We know that when Carmy was the CDC at Eleven Madison Park, he was horribly abused on a daily basis by his boss, the Executive Chef. Carmy had the completely arduous task of leading the kitchen while under extreme duress, and to such a degree that he was able to retain the highest honor in his industry. The stress of it all we know, made him physically sick, everyday. We also know at this time, Michael wasn’t speaking to him, and it’s unlikely his family understood what he was going through in this moment. He was going through monumental highs and lows, without any support, and completely alone.

He probably has never had the chance to process it or think about it, let alone talk about it.

When Carmy comes home for Christmas in the flashback of S2E6, we see almost everyone, and especially his mom, give him guff and make fun of him for being a “big time chef….too fancy for us.” Carmy was in Copenhagen at the time and not in New York yet, but he’s going through exciting, transformative, life changing moments which no one in his family bothers to ask about or talk to him about. It must have been incredibly painful to not only not be able to share and talk about it, but to be made fun of for it, instead of being told, “good job”, which, as he shares in S1E8, was one thing he wanted to hear from his brother, so badly.

Sydney asks him about his experience because she genuinely wants to listen to him speak about this moment. She doesn’t just ask what it was like, she asks him, “how did it feel?” He immediately pours out his answer in such a way that made me think, my gosh, probably no one has ever asked him about it before. It’s terribly sad that until now no one has cared enough to show interest, and it must have made him feel so lonely to not be able to express himself or what this moment meant to him.

Now Sydney is here though, and she allows him the space in this moment to be vulnerable and heard. His answer perhaps isn’t what she thought it would be, but it’s honest.

Sydney understands the high level of the restaurants where Carmy has worked and what he has achieved professionally, and she admires him for it. She also understands on a much deeper level because he unknowingly fed her while he was the CDC in New York and she was his guest. Sydney’s eaten Carmy’s 3 Michelin star award winning food, and it was the best meal she’s ever had. He just doesn’t know it yet.

In S1E2, when the staff is cleaning the kitchen and Carmy mentions Noma, Marcus says “Noma’s the shit, huh?” Both Carmy and Sydney say “the best”, at the exact same time.

In terms of being understood, this contrasts starkly with Carmy’s conversation with Claire in another kitchen—the kitchen of the party house in S2E5. She mentions he was in France, he gently corrects her and says Copenhagen. She says, “go to Noma?”, he says, “worked at Noma.” Claire says, “I heard it’s alright” and he responds with “it’s pretty good”. This exchange stuck out to me when I first heard it. Is she sarcastically joking about Noma being just “alright”, or does she not know about its exceptional reputation? Either way she doesn’t ask Carmy any questions about it and then changes the subject.

After Carmy tells Sydney about his Michelin star call and the moment that immediately followed when he had to prepare to serve the U.N. Security Council, his face holds onto the memory of the moment and you can see it felt so good for him to express himself and talk about it. He probably hasn’t thought about it in a long time. He looks reflective and dare I say, proud. He then looks at Sydney, and they smile at each other. It’s quick, but he looks so grateful to her for allowing him to talk about this moment and also that she really, truly listened.

It’s these sweet little moments between the two of them that really make an impact because in these moments, they allow each other to share experiences that only a few people in the world would actually understand. Just like their sign language, the way they understand each other creates a form of communication and expression that is just between them.

I don’t think she realizes it, but Sydney asking Carmy this question, and by genuinely listening to and caring about his answer, she fed and nourished a part of him that had been starved for so long, just like he fed her.

©️moments-on-film 2023

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

I've been thinkin' on it, and I think the biggest reason people are still insisting that Ed is just awful and abusive and whatever (aside from the racism of it all) is because the writers of OFMD fundamentally assume that viewers will like him and be on his side.

And, like, that is one hell of a reasonable assumption. Before s2 we spent a lot of time getting to know Ed; we see he's very sweet and smart and can be silly, and his self-esteem isn't great and he already has a lot of self-destructive tendencies and struggles with believing he can have nice things. These are all things we see in s2 and none of them should come as a surprise. We've gotten to know Ed and in s2 the writers assume we will be able to grant him even the barest ounce of sympathy.

"But he's being super violent and hurting the crew!" Ed's behavior at the beginning of s2 is best described as "a bit over the top" in the context of the show, and before he pulls out all the stops trying to get the crew to mutiny on him in his suicide attempt, he never actually hurts anyone except for Izzy (Izzy's the guy who threatened him and caused all this, or he'd still be crying in his blanket fort at the start of the season. OFMD has ALWAYS had a "talk shit get hit" philosophy and Izzy should not be the sole exception).

"But he never had to face any consequences for his actions!" I think almost getting beaten to death and then having to spend an entire episode convincing yourself you deserve to live is a pretty big consequence, actually.

"But he never apologized!" The group apology in s2e5 was obviously a joke (Stede clearly wrote it anyway and made Ed memorize it, look how Stede mouths along and Ed fumbles his lines), and it's pretty clear that Ed's conversation with Fang is meant to represent what he's doing with everyone. He's trying. He thinks up a way to try to give Lucius closure, even though it doesn't work, and when Fang mentions something Ed did that hurt him, Ed immediately and genuinely apologizes. It is not a wild jump to assume Ed's doing that with other characters and the show just assumes we're smart enough to figure that out from context considering how the crew are good with Ed again in s2e6.

"What if he hurts Stede/is abusive to Stede?" Multiple characters ask Stede something to this effect, Stede says "that's really stupid, of course he won't," and Stede is right. Question easily answered.

We're shown that Ed's response to being hurt and upset is not immediately violence. His first response is to go and hide and make himself feel safe - tub, blanket fort, hiding under the blanket and Anne and Mary's. Violence is Ed's response to feeling threatened. There's a difference. We're shown this over and over and over again, and frankly the only reason I think some people miss it is because they don't care to think about what's making Ed feel threatened in the first place.

It's just so clear that some people watching this show care so little about Ed and only care about what he can offer in a scene with other characters. Ed did not enjoy anything that happened at the beginning of the season - the last time we see him in s1 he's sobbing his poor eyes out and that's implied to have been consistent through s2e2. He's suicidal and having a miserable time and yes, he's hurting people who care about him, but it's not just for funsies, it's because he's trying to get himself killed. It's wild to me that some people can turn on the Ed and Stede show, see Ed pull himself out of such a terrible place by the end of the season and commit to a life with his boyfriend, and think that the show is setting up Ed to be abusive or imply he hasn't gone through any character growth and just coasted through the season.

[savagewildnerness]

The Score of S2E5/E12 Don't be afraid, just start the tape.

OK, Someone was asking about the repeated piano notes that recur in S2E5 so I thought I’d have a quick go through the episode.

Please bear in mind that I have not listened to the soundtrack for season 2.  In S2E1 I was so profoundly moved by the exquisite violin music in the first 15 minutes that I was totally overwhelmed and I had to watch the first part of the episode several times to take it all in and be composed enough to continue watching.  

The way the music impacted me there, hearing it for the first time alongside the drama, as intended, made me realise I absolutely do not want to listen to the score before watching the whole of S2 and so not feel the emotion from it as intended, alongside the drama the first time I watch the show!  

I’ll spoil myself by analysing every trailer to the millisecond and reading your analyses… but the music: NO.  I even regretted knowing the Come to Me reprise before it was in the show.  

And even the S1 score… I know it well, but I listen to it on CD in the car, so I’m not familiar with the track titles as I’ve never really looked at most of them…. So, that said - this will not be referencing tracks on the score.  Perhaps I’ll return to this in more depth - analysing the music more thoroughly and with reference to the score after the series is over, but for now…

Piano pedal:

The piano pedal and theme recurs 5 times in the episode, and looking at when, I realised it is all related to Louis uncovering his suicide attempt as it culminates (on the fourth occurrence) in the full theme…

I transcribed just the first bit of slow notes, which isn’t very interesting, but here it is:

Musically the theme is just 5, slow pedal C’s the first and last occurrence - bookmarking the delve into the uncovering of memory.

The second occurrence adds an Eb, suggesting it has somewhere it is starting to head towards… but is still just 5 slow pedal notes.

The third occurrence starts the theme for a fair amount the theme and the fourth occurrence is the full theme.

1 - 5 slow pedal C’s. This occurs in Dubai at this point:

Daniel: How often has Armand spared a life?

Louis: Armand could see I was partial to you

I.e. When Daniel first opens up the concept of exploring his and Louis’ memories of San Francisco, we first hear the pedal C’s

2 - 3 C’s, an Eb and a C - 5 slow notes.  This occurs in Dubai

Daniel: I want to know, for me, what happened between us

So, the first two occurrences are Daniel opening Louis up to the idea of exploring what really happened at the first interview in San Francisco.

3 - Slow pedal C’s and Eb’s into the start of a longer piano theme.  This occurs in San Francisco

This is when Louis is talking about Claudia leaving on the train and him staying behind with Lestat and then…

Daniel: And then what?

The theme starts as Louis talks about this first contemplation of suicide and continues through Daniel’s plea to be made a vampire

4 - Full theme in San Francisco

This begins after Louis and Armand’s argument; after:

Louis: I loved her (Claudia)

Armand: But she didn’t love you.  Not like he did.  Not like I have.

Louis: I know

I don’t know if this is on the season 2 soundtrack, but I’ll presume it is, and it’ll be this, full version that continues now in its full form, through Louis going into the sun.

5 - 5 slow pedal C’s in Dubai, as at the start

This occurs when Armand returns, at the end of the episode

Armand: I could see you were partial to him.  I preserve your happiness even when you don’t or can’t.

Louis and Armand: I had a hunch

Armand: Daniel might prove fruitful in later times

The other, creepy soundscape with distorted horror/electronic sounds (YUM!) happens for the first time after Louis’ suicide attempt when Daniel is mentioned and it scores all the horror elements with Daniel and Armand, where Armand is basically torturing Daniel, trying to find out what makes Daniel fascinating to Louis and Daniel is terrified he is going to die.

The first occurrence:

Louis: He’s alive?

Armand: The boy? The fascinating boy.  He’s fine.  He’s just fine.  Oh, he’s fine.  You’re fine.  We’re all fine.

It continues as Daniel recounts what he can remember - the corpse, etc. and develops as Armand seeks what makes Daniel fascinating

I didn’t really delve into this part, but - violins/strings and a more familiar to most episodes, though sparser, predominantly piano and violin score with lots of high and thinner notes than usual return when Lestat is mentioned between Louis and Armand and Armand talks about listening to the tapes and why Louis did the interview.  It’s very pared back, but the “The drum was my heart” theme (Ahh… is that the origin track for the theme?  Anyway - you know the theme dooo doooooo, do doooo dooooooo one!) is there with high pedal strings as Lestat speaks to Louis and it suddenly drops away as Lestat vanishes…

Armand’s “easeful death” talk with Daniel as he eases him to his death also has a more musically full (and  beautiful) theme.  It reminds me a bit of Moonlight sonata and has Armand-romance-theme vibes in its gentleness - beautiful, delicate and simple.  Then a violin comes in and it becomes increasingly poignant and emotional and eventually (I feel) it has a romance to it too, especially from when Armand says “It’s the comfort we all long for” - it sort of resolves to a musical home.

Again, there is more resolved piano & strings music at the end with Daniel and Louis.

OK, so only a little analysis.  I just watched the episode once and made a few notes.  I basically did it to work out if those repeated piano pedal notes had a specific connection.  And they do - it is specifically tied into (at least as I understood it, from my listening) the uncovering of Louis’ suicide attempt.

Let me know if you’d like me to look at the music ever in the future.  I dunno… part of me feels like killing a fairy to analyse stuff like this rather than just experience the magic, but also I find it very interesting.  This is only a first little touch on stuff.  I could analyse and actually think about it…

Gosh, I adore Daniel Hart’s score!  And I love how unusual and differently this episode was scored compared to other episodes…

Let me know if this was daft of me or if you’d ever like me to look into the music at all.

[localguy2]

General analysis of DR Zane, S1 and S2 included (spoilers):

Man... Is this one a doozy...

Okay okay so, what I wanna touch on first and foremost is Zane's humanity, or his perception of his own humanity, because uhhh...

Folks the implications are NOT GOOD in the SLIGHTEST in regards to his Mental State and thinking process.

Something we've seen repeatedly throughout DR is that the merged realms and it's people in general don't view Zane as human, they don't see him as a person but more so a machine, or equipment.

We saw this first in S1E13 'Wyldly Inappropriate' we get introduced to "Zane Day", a day dedicated entirely to Celebrating Zane and who he is, and it sounds really sweet and it is- but...

It's celebrated in the worst possible way ever.

Zane is treated like a robot, like striaght up robot, when people speaks its all in an attempt to mimic a robotic voice, and sometimes people end up saying stuff that's really offensive to him (Zane look alike contest).

Heck, even other Nindroids are in on it.

This sorta paints a sad picture in regards to Zane, because it implies that the city (or maybe entirety of the Merged Realms) see Zane as just a robot ninja with cool powers, nothing more, nothing less.

And we see this a second time in S2E7 'Fugitives from Madness' and S2E8 'Secrets of the Wyldness', in which Zane and Cole fight off The Administration, and yet again we see how Zane's Humanity is absolutely disregard, heck it's even violated in this scenario, they don't even acknowledge him as a person, The Administration straight up calls him "Equipment".

Equipment that's to be destroyed when taken, and that's despite Zane proving himself to be an actual being multiple times to the agents.

So, what am I getting at here?

Well, in simple terms, The World of Ninjago Post-Merge doesn't really acknowledge Zane's humanity or his personhood, of course, the average everyday civilian to a lot less extent then say, an entire organisation, but the wholehearted confidence the Agents of the Administration say that Zane is an object calls into question whether it's their actual personal beliefs, or protocols set by the Administratior.

And... You know what's the absolute worst part?

Zane doesn't even TRY to defend himself.

Striaght up, he neither tries to explain what Nindroids are to people during Zane day, and just goes along with the flow.

And when fighting The Administration, he even OFFERS himself to them in exchange to let Cole and Bonzel get away, granted you could say it was part of his plan to buy him and the others more time, but his continued insistence on trying to find a compromise with The Agents sorta hammers home his whole hearted belief that he's:

A) Expendable.

B) Not a person, but a machine/"equipment".

Now, this might be over analysis on my end, but I would also like to point out the scene where he plugs himself into The Administration mech and tries to decode/hack their netrowk and systems.

In that scene, his mech gets stabbed in the back with a massive sword from one of The Agents, and instead of immediately getting the fuck out, he stays Plugged in and KEEPS trying to hack their stuff, all in the hope that he can finish it in time before he gets fried alive.

Unfortunately, that doesn't happen, his circuits get fried completely and he passes out.

But, it again (directly or indirectly) hammers in points A and B, Expendable, and Nothing more then a machine.

(I would like to add as well, his this parallels nicely with PIXAL in S11 during 'Kiaju Protocol', their stubbornness, and something I've neglected to mention about Zane which EVERYONE knows, is his Self-Sacrificial and Nobel tendencies).

And you don't even have to make that many assumptions for all of this to be considered true, just look at what he says...

In S2E5 'The Spell at the Waterfall', Zane finds a plush made for him by Frohickey, of Frohickey himself.

When Zane asks why Frohickey made him this plush, Frohickey says that he made it so if Zane had any issue to take up with him, he could talk to the Plush instead (reminiscent of his PIXAL-Brush coping mechanism in S1).

And Zane... Well he striaght up lies, he says and I quote:

"I do not expiernce heightened emotions."

Which, yeah, okay buddy, sure...

Just ignore the time you shut off your emotions... Sure

But anyway, this is really really unusual for Zane to say, he might not be good at emotions, but he'd never ever deny the fact that he feels all of them.

Well... Unless he fully believes he's just a machine.

See what I'm getting at here?

If he doesn't believe he's more then machine, then he sure as hell will make wrong assumptions and judgements on his own personhood and emotions, and... Why shouldn't he?

Everything and Everyone in the merged realms sees as him as nothing more than that, regardless of previous experiences and events that have impacted him personally.

It's wrong, really REALLY wrong, but in his mind, probably not so much.

So, what do I think they writers are doing this?

I think personally, this is all subtle and slow build up to give Zane an eventual arc, perhaps in Part 2 of Season 2, or in Season 3 even.

Because, even Doc himself recognised that Zane's character has become very stale and boring during the last few seasons, and given how pretty much EVERY CHARACTER in the show has gotten something to do that involves their character, it'd be particularly odd to leave Zane out (well unless they don't know how to write him).

And it's why they're deliberately making Zane go and say these things, it's subtle, but when it's time to give him his own time to shine, it'll make a lot more sense.

This could also related to the egg/pod thing he woke up in under Imperium, because Doc also said that it's a matter for later seasons.

But it remains to be seen if the future planned Zane arc/story is connected to the egg he was in, we'll just have to wait and see really...

[canonizzyhours]

What nobody wants to admit is there’s a reason OFMD fandom has a big divide over how to interpret Izzy and it’s simply that Con is playing against the scripts.

Con DOES play Izzy like he and Ed have a profound warrior’s bond and their relationship was actually a positive thing up until Stede appeared and Izzy’s jealousy made him briefly go a little bit insane, but once he recognized that Ed truly needed to be with Stede to be happy Izzy was able to let go because his love for Ed is genuinely selfless. People who see that in Con’s performance aren’t wrong.

However this makes no sense as an interpretation of the actual STORY. The scripts write Izzy as someone whose “love” for Ed has been selfish and controlling and abusive (in ways that, yes, echo Ed’s relationship with his father) since long before Stede was in the picture, and is mostly based in the fact that he craves power and manipulating Ed is how he achieves and maintains a position of power – plus the whole deal has this creepy undercurrent of psychosexual obsession. This was obvious back in season one but there’s zero remaining ambiguity about it at this point now that the show literally had Izzy tell Ed “I’ve been terrible to you for years” and “it was me who needed Blackbeard.” 

The way he’s written, Izzy has to let go of both his ambition for power AND his fucked up crush entirely before he can stop obsessively trying to control Ed’s life and be normal enough about him to start building an even remotely healthy relationship, which the two of them never had before. Both djenks and other writers have said this in interviews - what Izzy needed was not to realize Stede was good for Ed, it was to let go of his obsession with controlling his boss’ love life entirely before he even COULD realize that.

This contradiction isn’t Con’s fault, or really anyone’s. If you’re an actor it’s your job to come up with headcanons that make sense of your character’s motivations even if they’re not super clear in the scripts, and the scripts do not focus all that much on Izzy’s internal motivations. (It’s clear from his interviews that he got only vague high-level overviews from the writing team about their intentions for Izzy’s overall arc too, which is normal for a supporting character - not only has he mentioned scenes where he struggled to figure out the motivation on his own, he didn’t even know the show was gay for four episodes, meaning the writers and directors didn’t tell him about Izzy’s gay crush on Ed, the thing he plays as Izzy’s core motivation!) And it’s usually a good idea as an actor to come up with an interpretation that lets you sympathize with your character. So Con went with the most sympathetic read of Izzy he could come up with. It doesn’t make sense of the overall narrative arc of the show, but that’s not his job, his job is figuring out a motivation that gives him a foundation for feeling like he understands Izzy’s perspective in the scenes he’s playing.

So if you pay the most attention to Con’s performances and ignore the narrative framing of the scripts, you end up with basically the canyon read on Izzy’s character. If you pay the most attention to the story the scripts suggest and mostly ignore the performance, you end up with the non-canyon one where Izzy’s a really really bad guy up till s2e5 and he’s manipulative and emotionally abusive toward Ed. Neither one of those is really “canon Izzy.” They’re both present in canon and they directly contradict each other.

This is what led to the fandom getting incredibly weird. Because people most interested in Con’s performance take it as the primary lens through which they interpret the whole show - but it’s an interpretation that fundamentally cannot make sense of the story as a cohesive whole, so they keep running into cognitive dissonance, and they try to resolve it by coming up with increasingly contorted interpretations of the entire narrative arc of the show (including parts that aren’t even directly about Izzy) and getting angry when other people bring back the cognitive dissonance by pointing out how nonsensical those interpretations are. 

People who prioritize the scripts as their main interpretive lens don’t have quite the same problem, because if they notice what’s going on in Con’s performance there’s an easy way to integrate it: assume that the way Con acts is expressing Izzy’s own point of view, BUT IZZY IS WRONG ABOUT ALL THAT. Izzy THINKS he really understands Ed but he doesn’t. Izzy THINKS his feelings for Ed are selfless love but a lot of abusers think that, it’s him lying to himself about his motives being benevolent. And the thing is, this angle makes Izzy look REALLY FASCINATING but also WAY WORSE than the basic read where he’s just being selfish, it turns him from an ambitious manipulative schemer with a weird little crush into a horrific obsessed stalker with a creepy daddy-knows-what’s-best-for-you complex about Ed, a grown-ass indigenous man who never asked his white employee to control his life “for his own good.”

It’s no wonder everyone’s fighting all the time.

#88.

[purpleheartskies]

In s4 and s5, there were no scenes of Shannon and Robby, which was disappointing. There were only scenes of Shannon and Johnny, and these scenes portray an important contrast between Shannon and Carmen.

When some of us point out that Carmen has never encouraged Johnny to try to build a relationship with Robby, people immediately bring up the school fight as a justification and frame Carmen as the sympathetic party. But, Carmen didn't try to encourage Johnny before the school fight either. In s2e5, when Johnny was drunk and told her about Daniel taking in his (Johnny's) son, she just focused on the rivalry and told Johnny to be the bigger person. In s2e9, Carmen herself told Johnny that Amanda said that Robby is going to go to school, but again she didn't encourage Johnny to try more to become a part of Robby's life. Carmen however throughout the series has wanted Johnny to do better with Miguel. She has blamed, explicitly or implicitly, Johnny whenever Miguel has been violent and been in fights---s1 Halloween fight, s1 avt, and s2 school fight---in which Miguel himself had chosen to behave that way. He picked the fight with Kyler on Halloween. He chose to fight dirty in the avt although Johnny even told him not to. Miguel also started the school fight between him and Robby and provoked Robby to his limit. Miguel was even going to break Robby's arm for no reason at all. He also used what Johnny had told him in confidence against Robby. Carmen has never once considered that her son is to blame. She is the mature adult and Robby is a kid who was attacked and antagonized by her son multiple times (including in s5). Carmen cannot be so self-righteous as to act like she and her son have the moral high ground in this situation. Also, she has willingly chosen to be in a relationship with Johnny who is Robby's father and to encourage Johnny to gradually take on more of father-figure role to Miguel since the school fight and now of course to the baby she and Johnny are going to have, regardless of Johnny's negative past and present behavior with Robby. She is the one who has chosen to intertwine their lives more. In s3e8, when Johnny talked about his failure with Robby and not wanting to fail with Miguel, Carmen talked about everything Johnny had done for Miguel and specifically told Johnny that he is a sensei and that is his calling. She is the one who later went to him and made the first move, and they slept together. In s4e4, she offered to get Johnny pills when he became impotent over Miguel hanging out with Daniel, changed the subject to telling Miguel about them, and then told Johnny in a motherly way that he can tell Miguel when he himself is ready because he said that kids can be weird about their mom's dating someone new (projecting his own past onto Miguel). She told Johnny it would make him feel better. In s4e7, she pressured him to play "dad" to Miguel and got annoyed with Johnny for botching it. In s5e1, she was aware that Johnny took Robby down to Mexico to look for Miguel. Miguel's father is a dangerous person so the whole situation was dangerous for Robby as well, but she was okay with Johnny risking Robby to get Miguel back. In s5e3, she did ask Johnny about how things were with Robby, but she didn't show more interest or encouragement that he do more with Robby than checking the status of their relationship, like encouraging Johnny to have breakfast with Robby instead of him having rushed over to have breakfast with them. Later, when it came to Johnny being a father to her kid with him, she scolded Johnny like a parent would and told him to figure out how to not be "that guy again" when they were buying the pregnancy test. He later gave her a speech that as long as he's doing this parent thing with her---their child---he'll do whatever it takes. She said that she knows he would. He then said that he may screw up from time to time, but he won't run away, and she then gave him the news that they're having a baby. In s5e5, she was only okay with Robby having dinner with them after Miguel said he was okay with it. Robby is Johnny's son! Why is Carmen in a relationship with Robby's father?

In s4e8, when Shannon showed up, Carmen immediately got territorial about Johnny. Shannon, recognizing Carmen's reaction to her, made her place in Johnny's life known: Robby's mom. Carmen kindly excused herself. Shannon then told Johnny to be Robby's dad and take care of the Silver situation. In s5e4, when Shannon came over to get Robby's things and she realized that Johnny had knocked up Carmen, Shannon was actually supportive and tried to help Johnny so that he wouldn't screw up again. While Carmen has never encouraged Johnny to do right by his first born from another woman but has steered his focus towards her own son who is not Johnny's, Shannon wanted to help Johnny not screw up with his upcoming child with another woman. Also, whereas Carmen simply scolded Johnny to figure out how not to be "that guy again", Shannon did something to help Johnny not be "that guy again". She gave him helpful advice and actually helped him set up a means to earn an income. (She also doesn't know that her coming over when she did saved him from being scammed, but that was just coincidence.) Back in s3, when Shannon was in rehab, she did to try tell Johnny that rehab would help him too. Carmen, despite being a nurse, has never encouraged or offered to help Johnny with overcoming his alcoholism and instead ignores it, even being fine with them celebrating their pregnancy at a club with Johnny ending the night drunk and commiting a crime. Oh, but in s4, she did offer to get him pills to help with his impotence because as a nurse she has access to certain medications. Carmen had shown more concern about Johnny's impotence than she ever has about his alcoholism.

The contrast between Shannon and Carmen is actually quite interesting and noticeable. Had Shannon and Johnny not been addicts/alcholics, it's likely they would have been more supportive of each other over the years. Shannon has always shown a rightful bitterness towards Johnny because he had abandoned her, in addition to abandoning Robby. Of course, Johnny and Shannon didn't have to actually be in a relationship to be supportive of each other while they co-parented Robby, but Johnny's and Shannon's poor decisions have lead to Robby's life and mental health being what it is. And, regardless, sadly they continue to emotionally neglect Robby, like not caring how the baby news would affect him, not caring who he wanted to spend the summer with, and not caring about the lifetime of trauma that they have given him because they were "young and dumb", as Shannon put it.

Seriously, though, go back and rewatch the Johnny impotence scene in s4e4. The level of dysfunction portrayed in Johnny and Carmen's relationship is as bad as Johnny's dysfunction in bed. Their scenes in s5e3 are also enlightening, as Carmen's annoyance of Johnny's stupidity and emotional immaturity is dripping in those scenes. I still can't believe that people cheer on this dysfunctional blended family built on Johnny neglecting and abusing Robby to prioritize Miguel and the Diazs, and Johnny having impotence over Miguel hanging out with Daniel while Johnny didn't care that Robby was training with Kreese. It's like "Come on, people! We, as an audience, can at least have better standards for healthy parenting and relationships." smh...

(These are general thoughts and not directed at anyone in particular.)

[byooregard]

Since I spent like an hour on friday going through my copy of iwtv (1977 first Ballantine Books Edition) so here's where every episode title is said in the book.

possible spoilers for the show; definitely spoilers for the nearly 50 year old book.

S1E1 "In throes of increasing wonder" page 13, Louis only every directly says the words "increasing wonder" ("From then on I experienced only increasing wonder") about his first meeting with Lestat

S1E2 "...after the phantoms of your former self" page 81-82, said by Lestat ("You are in love with your mortal nature! You chase after the phantoms of your former self!") when they're having one of their many arguments about Louis' feelings about killing, right before they turn Claudia

S1E3 "Is my very nature that of a devil?" page 73, after Louis and Lestat are driven off of Louis' plantation & are rejected by a mortal woman Louis likes & thought would protect them

S1E4 "...the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding" page 98, said by Louis about Claudia (in narration) ("She was simply unlike Lestat and me to such an extent I couldn't comprehend her; for little child she was, but also fierce killer now capable of the ruthless pursuit of blood with all a child's demanding)

S1E5 "a vile hunger for your hammering heart' page 116, Louis to Claudia, telling her the story of how she was turned ("I felt for you again, a vile unsupportable hunger for your hammering heart, this cheek, this skin.") While S2E7 gives us more context on how Claudia was turned, in the book it was very different-- Louis just straight up saw her and couldn't resist nearly killing her, & a few days later Lestat decides to turn her to save their marriage

S1E6 "Like angels put in Hell by God" page 148-- Louis says this to a priest in confessional after Lestat 'dies'. ("I am not mortal, father, but immortal and damned, like angels put in hell by God.")

S1E7 "The thing lay still" page 138, Louis' description of Lestat's dead (ish) body

S2E1 "What can the damned really say to the damned?" page 168, Louis contemplating what he might find in Eastern Europe as he and Claudia sail to Europe.

S2E2 "Do you know what it means to be loved by death?" page 224, said by Santiago in basically the exact same context, although the play is different.

S2E3 "No pain" page 225, said by Armand, who is onstage & is the one who kills the woman in the first performance we see at Theatre des Vampires

S2E4 "I want you more than anything in the world" page 284, said by Armand to Louis when they're on a little date in this abandoned tower Armand likes to hang out in, notably after Louis turns Madeline without approaching Armand about it; I believe he also repeats it twice same as the show

S2E5 "Don't be afraid. just start the tape" page 3; said by Louis to Daniel basically the same way it happens in the show.

S2E6 "Like the light by which God made the world before He made light" page 142, something Louis says while contemplating his existence directly after Lestat 'dies'. ("I had now lived in two centuries, seen the illusions of one utterly shattered by the other, been eternally young and eternally ancient, possessing no illusions, living moment to moment in a way that made me picture a silver clock ticking in a void: the painted face, the delicately carved hands looked upon by no one, looking out at no one, illuminated by a light which was not a light, like the light by which God made the world before he Had made light.") (jesus, anne. i thought i wrote horribly long sentences)

S2E7 "I could not prevent it" page 307, said by Armand, also repeated twice like he does in the show, although this is said as he's saving Louis rather than in the present day interview

S2E8 "And that's the end of it. There's nothing else" page 341; idk if this is the actual episode title, but it's what wikipedia is telling me and it makes sense enough. The last thing Louis tells to Daniel before ending the story

under the cut-- other lines i remember from the show that i underlined while reading the book; please add on if you have any more or correct anything i got wrong

(also this is all just my memory while reading the book, so it's messy and imperfect) (all of the book quotes should be correct, but forgive me if i cannot remember the lines from the show exactly and don't bother to search for them)

interview begins with "You weren't always a vampire, were you?" and then "There's a simple answer to that. I don't believe I want to give simple answers. I think I want to tell the real story." page 4

Daniel says "ah, that's the accent" and notes that there's a "slight sharpness to the vowels" also page 4

the monologue louis has about becoming a vampire "A dull roar at first and then a pounding like the pounding of a drum" to "i realized that drum was my heart" page 19

various things louis says about lestat in the first interview. i can't remember the exact lines in the episode but i think i remember "I was his complete superior and I had been sadly cheated in having him for a teacher" from page 31 and "he appeared frail and stupid to me, a man made of dried twigs with a thin, carping voice" on page 34

"The blood poured out of him, down his shirt front, down his coat. It poured as it might never pour from a mortal man, all the blood which he had filled from before the child and from the child..." page 137, describing Lestat dying

After they first attempt to kill Lestat, Louis also says the words "beginning the great adventure of our lives" page 142

page 216, when Armand and Louis meet, Armand does say "I will not harm you", and the note on his buisness card says "Bring the petit beauty with you. You are most welcome, Armand."

page 244, parts of the shpiel about concious & unconcious death from the first theatre performance

page 339, Armand says "She never loved you, you know. Not in the way that I loved you, and the way that you loved us both." after which he leaves Louis, something he hasn't managed to do in the show yet, though, to be fair, in the show after he said this Louis immediately ran into the sun

page 343, "This... after all I've told you... is what you ask for? " and "You don't know what human life is like! You've forgotten. You don't even understand the meaning of your own story...", though in the show they change this line a bit to make it sound more natural for a high 20 year old in San Francisco in 1973

[vigilantempathy]

Headcanon on Daniel Molloy's Sexual Orientation

TLDR: Bisexual (/pansexual/omnisexual/...) people exist. Spoilers for IWTV Season 2!

HC: Daniel Molloy is a bi guy who was comfortable being openly queer and very active in the queer community in the "Free Love" scene of the 1970s. However, the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the early 1980s led to him effectively re-closeting himself. And his failed marriages and inability to maintain intimate relationships made him choose to be alone, which let him avoid reassessing his sexual orientation/identity.

In the 1970s, Daniel met Louis and Armand for the first time in a gay bar. During the first 1973 scene, in S1E6, the bartender at Polynesian Mary's asks Daniel "Do you have money tonight, Danny?" indicating he's there often enough to have a reputation and be known on a first-name basis, so he's not just there because "it was a good place to score" like he lies to Louis during their present-day interview. (Contrast with the nondescript and anonymous recountings of the blacked-out fragments of memory punctuating the rest of Daniel's drug-fueled escapades.) In S2E5, young!Daniel makes obvious passes at both Louis and Armand, telling Louis "I can cheer you up" and taking his shirt off; offering to Armand, "I could be on my knees in a second".

It's not like Daniel was trying to pass for heterosexual in 1973.

In the ad for Daniel's pay-to-order journalism class at the start of S1E1, the first few news clippings selected to show his journalism cred are about the HIV/AIDS crisis and are oriented towards representing LGBT+ activism in response to it, indicating that this was a focus of Daniel's early journalism. In S2E5, one of 1973!Daniel's interview tapes that Armand grills him on focuses on Kevin, a Vietnam vet and his double-amputee Vietnamese refugee boyfriend who live in the Castro together. (The Castro is the historically gay neighborhood in San Francisco where queer activist Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official in California.)

Daniel, even as early as the 1970s and throughout the increased stigmatization of homosexuality in the 1980s, wanted to tell the stories of the queer community.

But telling the stories of the queer community in the 1980s meant telling the stories of lives and loved ones lost to the AIDS crisis, before research had yielded medical management regimens or any understanding about how to prevent the spread of HIV. AIDS was still seen as "the gay plague". AIDS was still a death sentence.

And Daniel likes women, too. And had the readily available excuse of any of his queer relationships/encounters/community in the 1970s being about the drugs, or a result of them. He could claim he was an addict willing to do anything for drugs rather than a queer man who had an easier time acting on his non-heterosexual attractions while high. And he's the reporter who catches the stories that slip through the cracks, he made a name for himself getting the angle none of the mainstream outlets can see, so he could still engage with the queer community as an "interviewer" and "journalist" and straight-passing "ally". He could likely publish more articles and books at that time as an ally journalist telling the queer perspective than he would have as a stigmatized/blacklisted openly queer journalist. Being an "ally" would give him access to platforms and audiences that would never hear a queer perspective otherwise.

Even though Daniel re-closeted himself and "passed" for decades as a straight ally, he never turned his back on the queer community or stopped trying to tell queer stories or represent queer lives.

But that let him continue to justify his re-closeting to himself as "I can do more good for the queer community as an ally." And even as the AIDS crisis shifted into AZT, then single-pill ART, then PrEP, even as HIV became a manageable chronic illness, even as decades passed and times changed and LGBTQ+ representation changed, Daniel stayed closeted.

And in that time he fell genuinely in love with Alice, who initially refused to marry him even though she wanted to because he'd given her no reason to trust him, eventually agreed to marry him, and later divorced him. Decades later, he still gets emotional talking about Alice. And then he got married, again, and divorced, again. He says he "ruined two marriages" and "fucked up two daughters." All that mattered was his work. It was his lifeline. It was his legacy. Interpersonal relationships were not.

He ruined all his romantic relationships. He ruined his families. And it was easier to be alone after that, and it was an easy excuse for why he continued to choose to be alone. But it was also a continuation of the logic behind his initial intentional re-closeting during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s: "I can do more good this way."

1980s Daniel: "I can do more good telling the queer perspective as an ally than as a member of the queer community. If I'm just an ally, people will actually read these stories."

2020s Daniel: "I can do more good alone. If I try dating again, I'll just wind up ruining someone else. And there are still stories that need to be told; work can keep me busy."

He was openly bisexual/queer in the 1970s, then bisexual/queer but intentionally "straight-passing" and in exclusively heterosexual relationships from the 1980s until the show's present-day, and still bisexual/queer throughout his interviews with Louis and Armand.

Bisexual orientation, attraction to multiple genders, and queer identity don't go away when a bisexual person is in heterosexual relationships/homosexual relationships/single. Daniel in a gay bar in the 1970s was bisexual; Daniel in love with Alice in Paris was still bisexual; Daniel married to women and ultimately divorced from them was still bisexual; Daniel in S2E5 being obviously disappointed to learn that he and Louis didn't get it on in the 1970s and making big vulnerable eyes at him in present-day when he jokes, "do you want to [have sex] now?" is still bisexual.

But now it's 2022 and Daniel's ruined two marriages and estranged from his kids and opted to be alone for a long time and may as well have been married to his work, and he's just been diagnosed with Parkinson's and he's anticipating dying alone.

And instead he flies to Dubai, has a bunch of really long therapy sessions with two absurdly gorgeous openly gay vampires (both of whom he has made passes at, back when he was still openly queer), many of which focus on the vampires' respective sexual orientation journeys of self-discovery and coming out, even more of which focus on stupid-hot queer gothic romances between various configurations of stupid-hot gothic romantic queers , and one of which involves him meeting Louis and Armand in a gay bar in the 1970s back when he was still openly queer. Mortal-ass, Parkinson's-impaired, forever-alone, septuagenarian Daniel Molloy brings his factchecking skills and token snark to a duel with an angelically beautiful 500-year-old master gaslighter with superpowers and Daniel fucking WINS, and if that isn't Viagra for the soul, I don't know what is. And instead of dying alone, Daniel Molloy gets to live forever.

Louis comes to see vampirism as a gift because it allows him time to work through his issues and become someone he can learn to live with.

Daniel might come to see vampirism as a gift because it gives him time (and a community, and motivation in the form of an assortment of really hot vampires who are suddenly all single thanks to Daniel's mad homewrecking/therapy skills) to figure out how to live an openly bisexual/queer life.

So it's 2024, Daniel Molloy is newly immortal and invincible and has the virility of a fledgling and wants to explore his queer identity. The rest of the world better hydrate well and buckle the fuck up.

[wylanslcve]

I love the way S2 showed the difference between how Jesper approaches a high-stakes situation in comparison to Wylan, specifically in the scene where they sneak into Pekka's estate by entering through an open window. Jesper practically jumps from the windowsill and then twirls his gun, whereas Wylan gently lowers himself from the windowsill before lightly dropping himself down when he's crouched close enough to the ground.

We know that Jesper thrives off chaos and spontaneity, hence why he leaps from the windowsill and immediately twirls his gun: he's diving head-first into the action. He actively seeks fights because of the thrill they bring him, because he "always felt better when people were shooting at him". You can practically see the adrenaline coursing through him.

Wylan slowly lowering himself until he's close enough to drop down is more careful and deliberate than Jesper's leap, and it shows the complete opposite: Wylan is more cautious and wary than Jesper because he doesn't thrive off the chaos of a fight. He doesn't find anything thrilling about being in a dangerous situation, especially when you consider his sheltered upbringing. (I say sheltered because, though abusive, his household never exposed him to the dangers of Barrel life. This is made clear in Crooked Kingdom when Wylan is reliving his first months in the Barrel, thinking about how "he might not have been happy at his father’s house, but he’d never had to work for anything. He’d had servants, hot meals, clean clothes. Whatever it took to survive the Barrel, Wylan knew he didn’t have it.") He doesn't want to get in trouble or get wrapped up in these sorts of situations because that's not who he wants to be - he doesn't want to be a criminal.

However, he inevitably leaps from the windowsill too (just when he's crouched low enough to do so) rather than slowly sliding off it and onto the ground, exemplifying how, despite how he doesn't want to be a criminal, he still contributes to the task at hand and gets involved in these types of situations. His hesitancy doesn’t paralyse him regardless of the fact that he doesn’t want to partake in criminal activity. Whether or not he wants to do it, this is the path he's decided to pursue and he needs to do his part.

This difference is also exemplified in the scene in S2E5 where Zoya and Tolya are recruiting the Crows for the heist to steal the Neshyenyer blade. When they offer payment for the Crows’ contributions, Jesper responds with “I like the sound of that” before taking a shot of something. In a way, it echoes the “time for a heist!” scene in season one, emphasising Jesper’s willingness to go on a heist due to the thrill it brings (as well as the prospect of a monetary reward). On the other hand, while Jesper is enthusiastically agreeing to Zoya and Tolya’s request, Wylan is giving him the bombastic side-eye due to Jesper's willingness to accept the mission without hesitation.

Again, Wylan can't fathom how someone could be so willing to go on such a mission, so he's side-eyeing Jesper in disbelief and almost disapproval but he's also not at all surprised because this is Jesper Llewellyn Fahey. Remember, Wylan doesn't thrive off adrenaline rushes the way Jesper does - he's only doing all of this because 1) his entire motivation is to "make his money, get out of town, and never speak the name Van Eck again" and 2) he pretty much has no other choice because he makes it very clear that "he would sell himself in the pleasure houses of West Stave before he’d ask for his father’s mercy".

[cynthia39100]

Merlin rewatch -- S2E5: Beauty and the Beast 1

Arthur

First of all, the children's reaction to their father flirting was hilarious. Sort of sums up the entire two-parters really. Bradley as always made the best comical face.

I wonder if Arthur ever thought of the possibility of his father's remarry. He must have. As he said, Uther was wealthy and powerful, it’s natural that there would be suitors. But I think he never thought Uther would go through with it so he just looked exasperated but not overly concerned or opposed to it.

But then the marriage was announced...

He looked so lost. Suddenly like a boy. He didn't move and only came back to himself when all the other's were clapping. Besides the fact that he was about to have a new mother, I think he was also shocked that his father didn't discuss it with him or even inform him before making it public.

It made me sad how alone Arthur seemed in this episode. Uther was besotted to his new lover. Merlin was busy dealing with the troll and didn't really catch on Arthur's little crisis. We don't get to see any interaction between Morgana and Arthur either. I hope they had some off-screen.

When Uther announced that he would marry the next day Arthur was more collected.

That tiny hint of a smile on his face made me want to wrap him up in a blanket. He wanted to be happy for his father despite the loss and hurt. Beautiful performance from Bradley James. I love how subtle it was. Very real and very Arthur.

[S2E5] [other episodes]

[kjthenbee]

On the lack of major "heart eyes" moments from Ed this season

So one thing that I've been noticing this season that kind of bothered me at first, but that I now think may be intentional acting on Taika's part, is that something about the way Edward has been behaving around Stede since they reunited strikes me as being much more distant compared to S1 Ed. Like Rhys is out here playing Stede as the most genuinely head-over-heels in love we've ever seen him, meanwhile Edward "Heart Eyes" Teach seems very emotionally reserved around Stede, and you can see it in his face.

Like yes, Ed still clearly gives Stede affectionate looks, but he isn't giving him those blatant heart eyes like he did all of S1. Like I especially don't think we've seen him look at Stede in the same way he did post-S1E9 beach kiss yet. We've gotten some moments close to it, such as after the "I love everything about you" conversation in S2E4, and when Ed is watching Stede run into the forest in that same episode. But during the moonlight kiss in S2E5, he seems pretty reserved emotionally, and when you see that last shot of Ed before Stede closes the curtains in S2E6, he doesn't look very thrilled.

Interestingly, the one time I noticed where Ed did give off a very similar "god I genuinely love you so much" look was not even with actual Stede - it was when he saw MerStede in the gravy basket.

Overall, this lack of Edward "heart eyes" moments has made a lot of the romantic scenes post-S2E4 feel just a tiny bit off to me, and I think that's the point. It makes sense that Edward still seems distant and guarded around Stede. He was hurt very badly when Stede left him, and he still needs time to truly trust him again (hence "taking things slow").

Another thing I'd like to add is that in both S2E6 and S2E7, Stede and Ed refer to each another as "my friend" (Stede to Ned Low, Ed to the people at the crab shack). Sure, other people refer to them as boyfriends, but they don't refer to each other as boyfriends. My husband and I were just talking about this, and he thinks that this is one hundred percent intentional on the writers' end. Stede and Ed may have talked in S2E4, but they still haven't talked enough. They're still not being mature about their relationship. They were "together" again for a bit, yes, but were they ever actually together? Like did they ever have a conversation to establish the nature of their relationship? Stede even said that their relationship could be "whatever they want it to be" during that last argument in S2E7, which struck me as odd, because it just makes their entire relationship sound very vague.

They both need to come together, talk, and be honest with each other. They love each other deeply, yes, but Edward has been hurt and is still recovering, while Stede is focusing on becoming the badass pirate that he thinks everyone (including Ed, as we saw from Stede's dream in S2E1) wants him to be, even though it's not who he really is at all, nor is it the person who Edward originally fell in love with. They need to come to an agreement that their relationship is a committed one, and they need to recognize that true love requires compromise, communication, and listening to your partner to truly stand the test of time.

SPOILERS FOR S2E8 (talking about brief clips shown in the teaser + clips seen in some BTS ads)

The heart eyes actually do seem like they are going to make a reappearance in the season finale based on some of the clips of Ed and Stede we've seen from S2E8 - particularly the ones where Ed and Stede are holding each other on the beach. The way Edward is looking at Stede in this scene actually does look like a genuine Edward "Heart Eyes" Teach moment to me. Just something I thought was interesting.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Something that always stands out to me on rewatches is how, when Stede asks Izzy to mentor him in piracy in s2e5, Izzy teaches him literally, precisely nothing.

Stede is unpracticed and terrible at the skills Izzy tries to teach him. Maybe he'd get better with practice, but all that really happens is he misses a shot, fucks up a rope swing, and Izzy hits him before he gets a chance to hit Izzy. We don't see Izzy actually tutoring Stede in any of these, because they're honestly unimportant, and the whole joke is that Stede is very good at spur-of-the-moment thinking and actions. He's great at thinking on his feet, and his natural creativity and ability to discern what he needs to do in the heat of the moment aren't things that can be taught.

Izzy teaches him nothing, and I think that's such an interesting point. The only two times Izzy's feedback is valuable in this episode are when Stede quickly gets a nod from him while he's telling the crew he's willing to give up his suit to make them comfortable, but he'd already made that decision anyway (and learning to prioritize the crews' input is something that carries on from s1), and when he gets approval from Izzy for his mean voice after the "do not try this captain again!" That's it, and Stede did them on his own, without needing to be taught.

And I'm thinking about Stede telling Izzy that he "made [Ed] into the captain he is today," at a time when Ed very explicitly not only is not the captain but has been in such a terrible place and hurt his friends so badly that they probably wouldn't listen to his orders even if he tried giving them. Izzy is, often, representative of not just the Blackbeard persona but the "old way" of doing piracy, in season 1 he was always talking about how Stede and crew were not real pirates and defining piracy as the culture of abuse Stede alluded to in the pilot.

So it just makes sense, really, that Izzy couldn't teach Stede anything. Stede's way of piracy is different, and it's not something that he needed to be taught to him. In the real world it would've been useful for Stede to learn the skills Izzy shows him, but here? They're irrelevant. Stede wins by outthinking, by being creative, by having empathy. Those aren't things that the culture of piracy Izzy represents values, so they're not things Izzy can teach him.

[crazykuroneko]

IWTV S2E5 Musings

Long ass note under the cut, but tl;dr Louis & Old Daniel is my new brotp. Armand can't take it away from me. And Armand has a PhD in gaslighting

• The impersonal statements Daniel pointing out. The implanted phrases Armand supposedly gave to Louis. Somehow my mind recalls the "vampire bond" explanation. The way Louis said it in S1 is like he's reading from a book.

• Current Louis knows Santiago's plotting

• Of course Armand is a lame crypto man 😭

• "His methodology is never violent" Oh, Louis

• "Armand preserves my happiness, even when I don't or can't" 🚨

• Louis still likes his coffin lined with a green silk 😭

• Young Daniel acts like a loser. I'm so sorry, I'm trying to take him seriously but he's funny lol

• "You're lonely. You're thrill seeking" Oh he reads him so bad. Why Louis stay with Armand tho?

• Louis and Young Daniel are just saying exactlyyyyy to one another lol

• Louis was agitated when Young Daniel pointed out the use of past tense on Claudia

• Louis is already in suicidal mind set even before Armand comes

• Interesting. The way Louis is reading his thoughts here. As in literal reading. He can't be in Daniel's mind (e.g. seeing what Daniel is seeing), his ability is limited to what Daniel's thinking. And Daniel is not thinking to himself, he just opens the Talamasca recordings right away. Thus Louis can only feel Hesitation from his mind, bu he doesn't know exactly what for

• "You don't have enough to fear from Paris?" On revealing their nature. I knew Louis had the man in the park an Roget. But why does this sound something bigger happened in Paris with the humans?

• "Is it the gremlin or good nurse tonight?" Well, he decided to be both tonight 💀

• "Throw pillow" "Use Claudia just to circle back to Lestat" So rich of him to shade Louis for his guilt over Claudia when he's the one who killed her.

• "It's all coming back" "Paris.." Louis forgets most of Paris?

• "She's calling me" I wonder if Louis is remembering Claudia calling him during her last moments

• No, I don't think Armand expected or waited for Louis to come into the sun like that. But he's definitely MAD because of that

• Armand is on mission to figure out what makes Young Daniel and Lestat interesting to Louis. Because Louis said he's dull

• "An instinct to self-efface" yes, both Daniel and Louis have that

• Armand kept Louis writhing in pain w/o blood for 4 days???

• Not @ Dubai Louis still giving excuses for Armand to Daniel 😭

• Armand calling Lestat. Lestat doesn't know where Louis is. Armand refuses to tell where they are.

• "You try! You were there!" Newfound friends found bickering lol

• "If you want insanity back, if you want to escape this prison of emphaty" Armand really says "Yes, I'm caging you, but you think this is bad? Well, you had it worse with him you wanna go back there??"

• Armand's tone during the coffin scene is very soft, but he's actually making himself clear he's mad MAD. Mad that Louis is trying to goad Lestat back to him again through the interview. Seeing how Louis always fast to reassure Armand with "all I said is trash" about Lestat, this is definitely an old problem to them. It makes me curious what made Louis stay with Armand post-Paris. What happened in Paris exactly? Lestat definitely knows Louis is alive and with Armand, unlike in the books. What has made him stay away? Did Louis pull a Nicki on him in Paris? Edit: wait, what if Armand reaches out to Lestat here is the equivalent of him going to NOLA in TVL and goes "news flash, Louis is actually alive. we were/are together"? Daniel doesn't hear Armand's first sentence to Lestat. and by that time, Louis does know lestat is alive but still numb 🤔 Armand mentions if Louis wants Lestat to chase him again, that's definitely about Lestat coming to Paris after the patricide.

• "All you had to do was ask" he says to the burnt Louis who is in need of his blood. A war flashback to "The silence is cruel. But you're never cruel" but in worse condition.

• Armand, making it clear he is extremely mad at Louis for trying to reach Lestat, that Louis is ungrateful cos he's been treating him better than Lestat, then dangling this channel of communication to Lestat in front of him, making Louis feels bad and coercing him to reassure him again. Armand has a PhD in gaslighting.

• The words from Armand afterwards. Louis certainly knows his answer but well, you can't answer that if you don't want Armand blowing up again.

• Armand only answers Louis back with Maitre once Louis assures him that he will stay with him.

• "I'm a bright young reporter with a point of view" Young Daniel is full of life and optimistic. Stubborn, refusing Armand's words, but they work. Then Louis came, saying it back to him, give him more words to re-find that motivation to live. Give him words to live on.

• Ngl I almost teared up to this scene with Louis and Old Daniel. They're precious as friends.

• To alter and surpress Daniel's memory, Daniel is already under a stage where he's very easy to be influenced and they give more drugs again.

• Old Daniel beeds to stay alive. I want Louis has one (1) friend that call out his and his boyfriend(s)' bullshits 😭

[cruciatusforeplay]

Hello I have Good Omens Brainrot like the rest of us, and I had a spare afternoon, so here is

Crowley and Aziraphale's Canonical Chronological History

(watching-guide with media timestamps so you can watch it all develop in order)

It's long so it's going under the cut. Let me know if there are errors beyond being out by a second or so. Also speedrunning two series of this show in an afternoon made me So Unwell (emotionally). I would absolutely recommend it.

I've broadly only included only clips that featured either one or both them as a focal point, or where the events would have informed their relationship, plus the option of the S2 finale in its entirety.

**Before the beginning, nebula** S2E1 0:00- 6:20 (up to opening credits)

**Just after the beginning, Garden of Eden, 4004BC** S1E1 1:55 (or 3:25 to skip Adam and Eve)-6:04 (opening credits)

**Noah's Ark, mesopotamia 3004BC** S1E3 0:00-2:47

**Job, 2500BC** S2E2 0:00-5:35, 22:30-40:01, 44:10-46:49 (end of episode)

**Crucifixion of Jesus, Golgotha, 33AD** S1E3 2:47-4:28 (continues directly to)

**Rome 41AD** S1E3 4:28-5:31 (continues directly to)

**Knights, kingdom of Wessex, 537AD** S1E3 5:31-7:56 (continues directly to)

**Bastille, Paris, 1793** S1E3 11:53-15:31

**The Globe Theatre London, 1601** S1E3 7:56-11:53 (continues directly to)

**Edinburgh, 1827** S2E3 8:34(post credits)-12:56, 17:38-22:10, 24:28-33:59

**St James' Park London, 1862** S1E3 15:31-17:29 (continues directly to)

**The Blitz, London, 1941** S1E3 17:29-24:07, recap can be skipped that can be skipped: S2E4 5:10(post credits)-6:14, 8:24-37:59

**Soho, London, 1967** S1E3 24:07-28:38 (opening credits)

**The M25 meeting, Hell, 1970s** S1E5 21:21-22:27

**The Antichrist, near Tadfield airbase, "11 years ago" ~2008** S1E1 7:32(post credits)-14:24, (optional baby drop off with Crowley) 19:24-20:14, 25:59-29:59, 30:14-32:24, 33:35-35:04 (continues directly to)

**Antichrist upbringing, "5 years later" ~2013** S1E1 35:04-39:30

**6 days before the end of the world, Monday, 2019** S1E1 40:45-43:19 (continues directly to)

**3 days before the end of the world, Wednesday, 2019** S1E1 43:19-44:08, 44:38-45:52, 48:01-49:11(to end credits)

**2 days before the end of the world, Thursday, 2019** S1E2 0:00-3:56, 21:16-23:33, 26:24-27:54, 31:04-32:10, 34:14-44:40, 45:36-46:21, 48:05-54:01 (to end credits)

**1 day before the end of the world, Friday, 2019** S1E3 30:07-31:14, 35:27-36:49, 38:48-41:30, 43:39-45:51, 49:41-49:53, 50:39-53:11

**The last day of the world, Saturday, 2019** S1E4 4:01-5:42, 8:15-9:28, 29:06-29:48, 33:29-42:00, 48:47-54:06 (to end credits)

**5 Hours and 48 Minutes to the End of the World, 2019** S1E5 0:00-1:32, 3:17(after credits)-4:17, 6:11-8:49, 11:01-13:25, 17:47(or 20:18 to skip the spirit of Ron)-21:00

**1 Hour and 43 Minutes to the End of the World, 2019** S1E5 21:00-21:21, 22:28-25:07, 26:49-31:43, 36:59-37:31

**17 minutes to the end of the world (and the rest ofbthat day), 2019** S1E5 46:24-49:25 (end credits), S1E6 1:53(2:35 to skip repeat section)-4:39, 8:19-9:49, 10:44-12:49, 14:02-27:10

**The very last day of the rest of their lives, 2019** S1E6 27:10- 28:07, 31:02-32:58, 0:00-1:46, 32:58-36:26, 42:33-45:45, 48:40-52:17

**London, present day (S2E1), ~2023** S2E1 7:48-13:15, 13:47-29:59, 33:00-36:13, 37:39-38:00, 38:19-42:41

**London, present day (S2E2), ~2023** S2E2 5:35-8:53 (to opening credits), 10:21-22:30, 40:04-43:28

**London/Edinburgh present day (S2E3), ~2023** S2E3 1:14-6:35, 6:47-7:07 (to opening credits), 12:57-14:36, 16:09-17:38, 22:11-24:27, 33:59-42:05(to end credits)

**London, present day (S2E4), ~2023** S2E4 0:00-3:42 (opening credits), 41:08-41:46, 42:02-43:09(end credits)

**London, present day (S2E5), ~2023** S2E5 0:48-2:57, 3:43-5:24, 7:07-8:04, 8:31-10:12, 12:29-13:32, 13:57-17:57, 19:33-29:52, 30:24-40:38

**London, present day (S2E6), ~2023** S2E6 0:00-4:52(to opening credits), 6:20-(optional 21:06-27:31 for Gabe and Muriel memories, otherwise continue to)end of ep