#aka that one episode of supernatural that doesn't really exist

[the-voldsoy]

Parallels/references/a couple theories about TMAGP EP1:

grouped in order of actual theories, vague things i noticed, and even vaguer comments! (using the same terminology as in TMA for ease)

HEAVY Spoilers !!

Stronger:

“Colin, mate, you know you’re never getting out of here” +won't leave until they figure out the errors “Or they finally kill me” → couldn't quit the Archives because they thought they just wanted to understand and know (but later found out they could only get out by dying or blinding)

Lena talks about cake → Mr Spider doesn't like cake + Elias seemed to love the stuff

pub called The Seward -> Peter Lukas vibes?

“There has to be a way to do this online” → haha ! you wish. (AKA supernatural interferes with internet so it cant be dont online)

“There's this box for a "Response 121" on the form.” → MAG121 is the episode Jon is woken from his coma/brought back to life by Oliver Banks

Talk about how there used to be a separate “Response” department → Elias tells Jon its their job to watch, not interfere (iirc)

Old as shit computer → old as shit tape recorders

AKA: the computer seems to be the only thing that can handle the supernatural

“ "Dolls comma watching" or "Dolls comma human skin" “ → violently Stranger and possibly Eye, has me in mind of MAG24 (the one the Calliope is first mentioned in, where the boyfriend is turned into a doll iirc) 

Barely understandable, long as shit file names →barely understandable, long as shit files names by Gertrude 

[in response to where the files go] “some long dead database that no one will ever look at or care about” → the Archives were unmanaged, decrepit and barely used by anyone outside of them

Work during the night - no sun, cut off from outside world → worked in a basement - no sun, cut off from outside world

Martin (and later Jon) taking the statements → did the same in TMA but in reverse (although I’d love to know if there's any reason behind them being called Chester and Norris, besides what's stated?)

Haha Martin and Jon (and Jonah) are now part of the World Wide Web → shit now they're part of the Web (just like with the tape recorders !!)

Someone talks about how they're sorry, they should've listened, couldn't face not hearing him again → martin @ jon and vice versa

Stranger statement with hints of the Dark → first TMA statement was a Stranger in the dark, and it does put me in mind of the Anglerfish tbh

Sorting system for the statements (although there's is a Lot more detailed and v different) → Smirke’s Fourteen

Gwen openly does not like Lena → literally anyone @ Elias

Asked if they were tricked into working here → well, we know the Archives and Elias

“The awful, terrible thing that landed you here?” → most of the Archives (excluding Sasha and maybe Martin) had something that made them Marked, that mostly led to them working there

Someone who's into spelunking listed the Institute as “cleared” → who could that be (if we know them at all)? Buried avatar, i'd guess, but we don't really know any of them

Photos of the Institute don't show up → photos of the supernatural don't work

The Institute was “weird”, made the subject paranoid → lingering Eye

Fire twenty years ago that burned the Institute → Like the fire at Hilltop Road? Or like that time Gertrude tried to burn down the Institute?

Third floor was the most burned → assuming that's the top floor (and correct me if i'm wrong), wasn’t Jonah in (and later killed) on the top floor?

“offices like little cells” → employees were certainly trapped ! also Millbank Prison

Worried non-existent doors were going to slam shut → the Distortion

Weren’t any papers → left behind before the Institute came to this Somewhere Else (assuming it's the same Institute)? (we need an actual name for the original universe and this Somewhere Else)

Suspicious stains on some floors → my darling, that is blood ! or possibly squished worms, or ink. or possibly something Else

“an old wooden thing with a bunch of similar symbols on” → genuinely unsure what this could be

Strange symbols → For all the Fears, or just the Eye, i wonder? I think i remember them saying something about an Eye symbol at this point, but now i can't find where

“you get a job, I get a fresh victim. It’s all in your contract.” → Elias @ his employees

 “To new beginnings, with old friends” → to a new beginning, with our old friends Jon, Martin and Jimmy Magma :)

“You’re not as clever as you think you are. You think you've got us all fooled, that no-one knows you're listening, But I do. I know. I’m going to find you and then…” → hi what did he mean by this

They (jon, martin & jonah) are Watching and Listening and following through technology→ just like Elias (Panopticon vibes tbh) and Sergey Ushanka

Vaguer (idk if theres anyhting here, but wanted to include it anyway):

Alice loves coffee -> Martin loved tea

Meeting in a cemetery → Sasha with Michael pre-prentiss attack, Naomi Herne 

Not wanting to stay at home because it's full of memories → Jon moving with Georgie, Martin moving to the Archives

Gwen Bouchard wants Lena’s job → Bouchard (appeared to) climb the job ladder quicker than he should have

Heh bug list → corruption

 “You don’t seem like the usual hopeless wasters Lena hires” “The awful, terrible thing that landed you here?” → okayy no need to be rude. But anyways the OG Archives crew were actually pretty disconnected from the rest of the world +were barely there by choice?

“freight cars near Brighton” → hey where did Melanie get her first Slaughter mark ?

“it’s not too awkward working with an ex?” → Georgie and Jon?

FR3-d1 -> i feel like there's something there, but i cannot figure it out

Just words that made me irrationally scared:

Stranger(‘s)

Distortion

Opposites:

Starts with a party for someone leaving → couldn't quit the archives

“ …you are perfectly within your rights to resign. No one is forcing you to stay here.”

please put any opinions/additions in the tags !!

[eonian-nightmare]

Why I think the character Kayne from the Malevolent podcast is Nyarlathotep.

Okay, so obviously Malevolent follows lovecrafitan logic. So let's look into that Lore.

*Spoiler warning up to episode 31*

Malevolent is heavily inspired Lovecraftian lore. With a heavy focus on The King in Yellow, as well as minor influences from The Black Stone, The Dream Cycle and others, the supernatural of the world generally has roots in HP. Lovecraft's universe. So, when it comes to unknown characters such as Kayne, listeners can't help but dissect the entity in hopes of figuring out motives as well as possible plot progressions. Following this mindset, one can only hope but wonder what it might mean to draw comparisons to Nyarlathotep. Nyarlathotep (aka the Crawling Chaos) is one of the primary antagonist in the Lovecraftian universe. He doesn't really have a reason for his "villianry", apart from having an amoral perspective, a sadistic personality, and a desire to manipulate those around him, he generally just follows the will of his father, the blind god, Azathoth. However, in his spare time he is often seen manipulating and deceiving humans for personal pleasure, often choosing to toy with them or drive them insane. Although Kayne seems to fit this bill, being the epitome of toying with people and unhinged insanity let's talk specifics parallels.

Seven Million Voices & Two Heads

In episode twenty, in a joking maner, Kayne hands Arthur (the protagonist) a coin, and states the following: "Look, I often wish I had two voices in my head Instead of, like, seven million? But when all is said and done, you can always flip a coin. Two heads and all that." At first, this sentence may seem like just another deliriously random thought spewing from Kayne's mouth but upon further investigation, we can assume that this quote is some foreshadowing into future plot points or a Nyarlathotep reveal. It is important to note in art and imagery it is not uncommon for Nyarlathotep to be depicted with two heads. This displays interesting connotations because it implies that Kayne was acknowledging that his human form is not his true form, and instead a disguise which like Nyarlathotep he often wears. This is important knowledge as Nyarlathotep is the only "other god" (powerful lovecraftian beings) that can wear a human mask. Furthermore, Nyarlathotep is also able to create avatars/minions to follow him and he communicates with them telepathically. This would likely feed into Kayne's numerous voices in his head.

Travelling the Planes

Unlike most gods, both Kayne and Nyarlathotep alike are easily able to travel through dimensions/worlds/planes. Nyarlathotep often is depicted as being able to exist "beyond the archetypal infinity", existing across every and any plane at all times. Kayne follows this pattern as we see him both The King in Yellow's city, found within the dreamlands in episode twenty, and in the mines on earth in episode twenty-eight, despite it causing other gods like The King in Yellow to break apart and split.

Biblical Imagery

Its important to note that althought unintended, Nyarlathotep is often seen as a the twisted version of Jesus Christ, or even depicted as the devil. This is because as Sigmund Freud states, interpretation of the text belongs to the reader, and offers a psychoanalytical insight into ourselves by what we understand from it. So, existing in a predominantly Christian dominated world, it makes sense that critics and fans alike have made the comparisons.

Nyarlathotep is the son of the blind God; Azathoth, sent to be his messenger and do his bidding on Earth, similarly to how Jesus was sent to earth to do the biding of his father. It's quite easy to bounce the idea of Jesus and Nyarlathotep off one another, with Nyarlathotep being to destruction as Jesus is to being a saviour. Looking at Kayne, the same can be applied, we can acknowledge the destructive nature of his being but also compare the significance of his appearance. Walking around with bare feet and hands, drenched in blood that would not stop, could easily be seen as a direct parallel to Jesus' own injuries post crusifiction. Plus there's the fact that in response to John's "Jesus Fucking Christ" swear, Kayne responded with "Present and accounted for!", something that could have been just a delusional quip but in light of everything else seems suspicious.

But what about the devil? Surely a character of evil nature should be attributed to him and well yes, while Nyarlathotep is also depicted as the devil, its interesting to instead see Lucifer and Jesus as two sides of the same coin, or as Kayne earlier said; "two heads". I could dwell on philosophy, discussing the significance between cultural understanding and the tradgey in Lucifers tale, which depicts him more as a victim that a villian, but that tangent would take me far to much of track so instead I skip to the parallel with the devil. In the bible, Earth was called lucifer's domain. He had primary influence, and as such the heavans took drastic measures to ensure there were ways to combat it. They realised fighting on his turf was to strong, so god sent his only son to create a gateway out of his domain without the cost. This had to happen because Lucifer walked amongst the humans when others could not, he would whisper into their minds, corrupting them to sin and puppeteering them into madness. When it comes to lovecraftian lore, Nyarlathotep essentially did the same. He was known to have the most powerful influence over earth compared to all the other gods, he whispered into their minds and constantly drove humans insane. This is something that Kayne implicated he had the power to do. Kayne stated that compared to John/ The King in Yellow, He is more powerful, especially using mortal understanding. He was able to exist on earth because it was his domain and considering his relationship with sanity, it hardly seems unjustified to do this comparison.

Also its important to note, Lilith is refferenced as having a close relationship with Kayne and in Lovecraftian Lore. She is Nyarlathotep's daughter.

Faustian Comparisons

Apart from Lovecraft, Malevolent takes inspiration from many other sources such as Robert Frost, William Ernest Henley and most significantly Faustian folklore. With the podcast following a similar premise to the tale (man with a dead wife, drowned child, combats irredeemable guilt by making a deal with a demon), it makes sense that Kayne and Nyarlathotep would hold comparison to the main demonic being; Mephistopheles. All three entities maintain a chaotic, trickster based personality, inspired by their willingness to play and trick humans. Mephistopheles takes this further, using contracts and deals to delude. In the episode Coda, Kayne mirrors this by offering Arthur (Our Faust counterpart) a deal, allowing him to retrieve part of The King in Yellow for himself. As the deal-maker Kayne manipulates Arthur, pressuring him into a deal in which the fine print is hidden just as Mephistopheles does to Faust. So we can only presume Arthur will meet a similar demise at Kayne's hand as Faust met at Mephistopheles.

TLDR: All in all, if Kayne is supposed to Nyarlathotep, who is essentially the antithesis of Jesus Christ. I reckon we have an interesting story ahead of ourselves. Especially considering the Faustian inspiration practically guarantees tragedy

[waeirfaahl]

About Aku's first fairy tale

Although the idea with Aku, telling various fairy tales to kids, was surprising for me even when I was a kid (I would more expect from him tales in Edward Gorey style or whatever), there still were interesting aspects. From one side, Aku tries to be kind to these kids, so even in the end he himself acts more like a kid, unable to debate with them calmly. From another side, all fairy tales humankind knows survived after eons. Plus, as I pointed out previously, neither Aku's ancestor (at least, its fragment aka the black lake), nor Aku became a part of folklore/myths/legends of mortals. But the most interesting aspect is in Aku's first fairy tale. Although the episode tries to make Aku to be some liar, who pretends to be good (especially, how the demon omits the fact of enslaving and tries to make Jack look villain in the next tales — on the other hand, since the returning to the past and changing of it will erase the future and its habitants, unintentionally Jack can become a villain let's pretend 5 season doesn't exist), but the irony is that in own way Aku said the truth in his first tale.

The story was about how he defeated a cosmic serpent, who devoured planets, and gave food to mortals, so they considered Aku as their "beloved hero and king".

(pretty funny that he tells exactly this tale in exactly such positive way, 'cause he never hid the fact that he is a "master of darkness", who conquered the world etc) Aku never portrays himself as some god, who created everything and everyone in the universe. In this fairy tale he portrays himself as a hero, who gave certain benefits of civilization to mortals. And, if you noticed, Aku really created multi-cultural society with technological progress and magic (not perfect, but still). And, despite the image of the dark cynical ruler, Aku clearly wanted sincere gratitude from mortals for this, not hypocritical/fanatical flattery. Another aspect — Aku says "That is the story of how I came to be", where "came to be" means his beginning, how he started to exist (like, before this he even mentions the word "arose" — just like Emperor tells to Jack "Aku arose from the bowels of hate" in 1 episode of 1 season). Pretty interesting contrast to his real origin in "Birth of Evil" (the tragic aspects of the character and his origin I mentioned here).

I guess, this detail can indicate Aku's self-hatred and inability to accept and to let go the past indeed. Especially with the fact, that he never calls himself as a demon or as some entity (ah, Aku is actually a supernatural alien creature), only once as a wizard and various epithets of him as of someone, who just controls darkness.

[bucky-bucky-bucky-bucky]

I have a complicated outlook on the big reveal that Chuck (aka god) is the villain.

On one hand, I'm like, very anti religion. I don't believe in god at all. I think organized religion is evil and easily corrupted. and I see the ways that religion (specifically christianity) gives people an excuse to be hateful. basically, I like the fact that god is the villain in supernatural bc I see religion / christianity so negatively. it felt like a hell yeah moment for me. especially bc I was raised in the south where everyone is just soooooooooo christian and people have told me my whole life about the "power of prayer" and that I need to "give everything to god". which, in my opinion, all of that is ~bullshit~. especially because like... we see horrible things happen everyday to people who do not deserve such treatment, but tHe GoOd LoRd doesn't lift a finger to stop it (bc he's not real). And even if he was real (he’s not), you’re telling me that children get cancer and people get murdered but he’s this loving almighty father??? You’re telling me there’s a pLaN and a ReAsOn FoR eVeRyThInG??? Bullshit. Absolutely not. There’s no reason for a child to get cancer. There’s no reason for rape and murder to exist. so I've always viewed church/ prayer as shouting into the void. Bc no one is listening!!! which is basically what happened to sam and dean. god was not answering prayers, he didn't care. he didn't listen. So the reveal of god as the villain was so satisfying to me, it felt like vindication.

BUT-

on the other hand, I loved chuck! before the reveal that he was The God, back when he was just a guy to us, I was like "what a weird little dude. He's endearing and kind of pathetic and he the writes supernatural books, that's fun." and in every episode after that (up until the reveal of him as god) I liked him more and more. Then we found out he was god and my view of him changed a little. I was kinda pissed at him for being such an absentee father and leaving sam and dean alone to deal with all the apocalyptic shit / general awfulness. but he was still that endearing, likable guy. And he talked about free will and how he didn’t step in because it wasn’t right of him to intervene and dictate their choices. so I didn't hate his guts…

UNTIL- the s14 finale. He's just such a spiteful asshole. The way he sees sam and dean as nothing more than his favorite show makes me ill. And it made me miss the version of him from the earlier seasons, when I thought he was just some weirdo prophet guy.

even when I rewatch the show, I still love that version of chuck. I still really enjoy him. And then when everything turns sour in the s14 finale, I hate his fucking guts.

[blossyossyossy]

Things I would change in Danny Phantom: make Danny and Tuckers friendship and Danny and his bond with his sister the focal point of the big emotional safe haven of the show. Make Danny's parents out right problematic and abusive instead of stereotypical stupid parents Butch Hartmen enjoyes doing. Keep Vlad as the big bad villian(but actually commit to it) or give him a redemption arc. Give Sam a villian arc and explore toxic abusive girls. Especially ones who don't take no from their life long crushes who don't like then back and will never see them more as a friend. Don't let Paulina just be another stereotype. Make pink astronaut end game. Maybe make Danny be the ghost king. God make the game have demon slayer horror and consequences. Imagine if the horror in tht game was like Demon slayer! Last but not least I'd love to make Paulina like this tumblr blog report/writer or something does stuff about ghosts ananthe supernatural.

YES. I really would've liked for Danny and Tucker's friendship to have been explored more as opposed to having Tucker become Danny and Sam's third wheel.

I feel like Jazz's dynamic with the entire trio could've been explored more, especially since it seems like she had more of a bond w/ Sam than her own brother sometimes. But hey, at least she had an obvious bond w/ those two instead of having pretty much nothing w/ Tucker 💀

Considering Butch has a thing for having child abuse in his shows (aka FOP w/ Vicky's existence and Timmy's neglectful parents being why he had Fairy Godparents to begin with), I think Jack and Maddie are an improvement upon that and I would've liked for them to actually be good parents instead of questionable at best, abusive at worse parents so then there could be more angst but not in the sense that Danny fears his parents killing him <- has been reading DP fics

Oh Vlad. He had so much potential and I feel like him asking for what, $500 billion in the finale didn't make sense for him. I do think that him using his ghost powers to save and therefore control the world would've been enough for him and in character. I do like that Vlad is just going to be in space for the rest of his life but also couldn't he have just escaped to the Ghost Zone or whatever 💀? Like, people can't see him when he's INVISIBLE so he could've easily snuck into the Ghost Zone and lived out the rest of his days in solitude to think about everything he's done. I do feel like it was a bit of a cop-out to have the finale's big threat be a fucking asteroid instead of Vlad but eh.

Ooh villain!Sam would've been cool. The ep where Danny got his ice powers was a nice peek into what it could've been like. Also, Sam could've been a badass girlboss <- focusing on the wrong thing here. I would've liked for the show to focus on onesided attraction and not just Fenton's crush on Paulina and Paulina's crush on Phantom but Sam's crush on Danny. That could've been during the whole Gray Ghost thing and how just b/c you're friends/besties with someone, that doesn't mean that the two of you are meant to be romantic partners which is ironic for a demiromantic to say but shh

No cause I LOVE that Valerie wasn't a stereotype and I would've loved it if they did the same for Paulina. Maybe they could've done something like that one FOP episode w/ Trixie being into boy stuff?

I was actually thinking about this earlier and having either Gray Ghost or Pink Astronaut as end game would've been so cool cause both have a girl of color as the love interest and it's not a best friends who barely have chemistry [not saying that's what Danny and Sam are, I'm just talking about the trope in general] to lovers

OH. ANOTHER THING THAT FANFICS MADE ME BELIEVED WAS CANON. I thought Ghost King!Phantom was canon in the show b/c of all the damn fics that had as canon in their AUs and so I was confused by the constant disrespect until it clicked for me that Phantom being Ghost King is another popular phanon thing.

I don't know much about Demon Slayer's horror but I'd assume that it's pretty cool and/or interesting?

Your blogger!Paulina would've been like the PERFECT thing to expand her character. It's genuinely a cool concept that goes w/ her obsession w/ Phantom and then some. I also like the inclusion of Star since I, once again, thought that Paulina and Star were besties b/c of fanfics (do you see how many times I've been gaslit by this damn Phandom???/j).

[crystalkitty1220]

First post (this is a seperate post because i wanna tag this one with the fandoms :))

@consumeroflemoans *takes lid off of plate* your more, my good tumblr user

Adding a cut because this is a really long post but I spent way too long on it not to tag it. Hopefully it's easy to scroll past with the cut. If it's not, then I really don't know what people want from me.

My thoughts come up with way too many Animorphs/IBVS crossover ideas when I should be focusing on other things. Many of these ideas get expanded on through conversations and/or roleplays with Echos, others just soak in brain juices for too long, while the last few quickly disappear and I only remember them as concepts.

Okay, so to start, I should probably explain this one:

Echos and I have created quite a few timelines of the casual version. In every timeline, Isaac and Marco have schedules that cause them to take the same long journey from one side of the school to the other each day. The first notable place where the timelines branch off is whether our beloved closeted bi disaster mistakes Isaac for a girl and tries to ask him out. Those timelines tend to exist simply because they're funny; I believe there is only one timeline in which they actually go on a date, and that is a timeline which is even funnier, not that I can actually remember most of it.

A few near-consistencies throughout the casual version timelines: Rachel and Tobias witnessed the Chrisler while on a flying date, they assumed he was a cosplayer. Jake could have been a popular kid if he made it on the basketball team. Most of the Animorphs don't even know there's a school king, not that they have any reason to care. Edward does get the occasional hunch about the other plotline, mainly just stuff like 'whatever those guys are hiding isn't my club's business and needs to stay hidden' and 'stay away from those weirdos and their weird Sharing thing'.

-

Second, the one the from today, which the first post mentioned.

(just to be safe) tw: gaslighting, i think

It takes place in a similar timeline to the casual timeline. As explained, Drew gets invited to a meeting of the Sharing. Either a meeting or a party, it doesn't really matter. Think of episode 17 of the Animorphs Nickelodeon show, aka the only episode I liked because it didn't have the disc in it and it actually felt like Animorphs.

Nevin comes with him, but Drew convinces Nevin that he's fine on his own. Drew is not fine on his own. He's terrified, actually, and he's surrounded by people who mean him harm, and suddenly his head is being forced into some water thing he hadn't even noticed before because he was too distracted by the lizard people. The Yeerk he's stuck with is not very nice, because why would he be nice if he just discovered that some humans have superpowers? The evil slug has a whole plan: to not tell any of his fellow Yeerks (possible competitors) about this secret supernatural club, to fool the humans into following him somewhere he could meet up with a Visser (One or Three, hopefully One), and become a sub-Visser or even a Visser himself.

Nevin immediately notices that something is very off with Drew's emotions, reminding him of when Charlie was possessing Chris, and during a faux-friendly conversation with Drew he comes to the conclusion that Drew (along with a lot of people in the Sharing, it seems) is possessed. Which, y'know, isn't quite on the bullseye? But it's close enough. Nevin practically drags 'Drew' home while he texts Chris to come to his house, giving a brief explanation. The twins gets home, Nevin reveals that he knows Drew is 'possessed', 'Drew' insists that he doesn't know what he means, and Nevin calls Chris out from the shadows so that they can both corner 'Drew'.

Chris, cleverly, brought the closest thing to a possession expert he has on hand: Charlie. The three of them interrogate Drew. They narrow down that this surely can't be a demon possession because there's no clear physical change, no clear personality change, and he still has all his memories. Similarly, Charlie and Chris reason that if this were a ghost possession, the ghost probably wouldn't have his memories and there would probably also be some kind of physical change (such as when Chris' eye changed color whenever Charlie would control him). Chris wonders aloud if, maybe, Drew wasn't currently being possessed but had some kind of ghost attached to him that he didn't know about. Nevin immediately shut down that theory because the emotions didn't match up that way; Drew was definitely not the one who was in control.

After a bit more interrogation, Drew is un-cornered and Nevin begrudgingly agrees to treat Drew like normal and just see what happens - as long as Charlie would stay over to watch Drew to make sure he didn't try anything while Nevin was asleep. Before Chris leaves, Drew stops him to talk with him privately: "Nevin's emotion-sensing is a whole unique sense for him, so it could probably get affected by some things just like any other sense. I think something's happening - maybe he's sick or it has to do with his powers - that's causing him to hallucinate." Chris, who was having his own doubts, agrees with Drew and shares this concern with Charlie.

The next morning, before school, Chris comes over and helps Nevin make pancakes, and the Yeerk almost gets caught because he's astonished by how good the pancakes are. And that's as far as I've thought, so the rest is open-ended for now (or for forever, it depends).

-

Thirdly, the series of fics that I was gonna write and might still write but I don't think I have the motivation: The IBVS take the place of the Animorphs but still have their normal powers. This is a long one, it's been stirring in brain juices for a while.

Most of the normal IBVS events don't happen, with the exception of everything pre-explosion. The day after what would normally have been explosion day, Chris invited Nevin and Edward out for ice cream in an attempt to work out peace between them. Isaac invited himself. Cut through abandoned construction site, yada yada. They just said 'no' when Elfangor offered the morphing power. Genuinely just went "nah, we got this." Unfortunately, this means they have to go through extra measures in order to keep their identities secret, such as kickass hero outfits that barely anyone gets to see because they always try to knock out all the controllers before they can be seen.

Their first costumes were low-quality cheap amalgamations of stuff that Charlie stole from Walmart (yeah Charlie's part of the team too, he kinda takes Tobias' role as the scout because nobody's gonna recognize him anyway). Their second costumes were all designed by Isaac (with the exception of Chris who wanted to design his own), sewn by Chris, and roughly based off an animal in one way or another. Off the top of my head, I only remember a few things about their costumes: Everyone wore gloves and masks, Drew and Nevin's first costumes just looked like raincoats (which hindered Drew's stealth because his was bright yellow), Nevin didn't wear a mask in his first outfit because he figured turning his eyes cyan was disguise enough, and their first masks were all those cheap itchy princess masks that got glitter everywhere and hurt your nose after about two seconds (with the exception of Isaac's DIY rainbow-painted fox mask, but I believe Edward took the fox theme after Isaac switched to a bird theme). I was drawing Isaac's second costume but I only ever finished the mask; here's what I have:

Costumes aside, I had a few plots planned. They were supposed to each be a oneshot, or two chapters if I felt like it was more fitting.

This series idea was where I first had the thought of Drew being invited to a Sharing meeting, but this one would take the place of Frankie's party. I actually have most of the first chapter/half of this one written out, but here's the summary: Drew spends a little bit of time wondering about why so many of the people with strange emotion colors he's been noticing around Foxfield are in the Sharing, before deciding to socialize. The only person Drew recognizes is Barry, so he goes over to say hi to him and the girls he's talking to. (It wouldn't be revealed yet, but Barry and Stacy are Chee.) A full-member meeting starts and Drew is left alone with Dez, who is apparently the only member of the les league who isn't a full-member. They talk for a bit and then suddenly chaos happens, aka the 'andalite bandits' crashing the meetings. Dez and Drew go to explore, stuff happens, Drew recognizes Nevin and both are like "what the fuck are you doing here" before Edward tosses Isaac out the window into Nevin's arms. Isaac has a wound, Drew screams because phobia of blood, Drew heals it and then screams because jesus powers, Drew stands up and then screams because leg is healed, Nevin finally manages to shut Drew up and they all promise to explain everything if Dez can be their getaway driver, Drew screams because a ghost just nyooomed into the car, and stuff is explained. Chapter 2 would be about Drew's first mission: teaming with Charlie, Nevin, and Chris to investigate the Yeerk Pool a little. He starts feeling nauseous from all the overwhelming nearby emotions. Charlie is left to babysit him in their meetup hiding spot until Chris and Nevin come back, but they're seen immediately because Drew's outfit is bright sunshine yellow. In this chapter we'd get introduced to lasers that can actually hurt Charlie, and this would be the first indicator that some of their current undercover outfits were absolute fucking dumpster fires.

In another planned plot, the team is cornered. Isaac's mask (the fox one, at the time) gets taken off by one of the Controllers, who is probably taunting them all and bragging about how he's going to get a promotion. This is the first time anyone in the group, this time being Edward, snaps. I'm not sure if you know or remember a specific scene from #10: The Android, but this kinda parodies that, in a way. Nobody talks about it for a long time, and Edward removes himself from missions for a while.

At the time I hadn't realized I had put Edward through enough hardships, so in another plot, it's discovered that select members of the Wolfe Pack are controllers (not Felix himself, but the Yeerks are definitely planning to get their hands on him for his money). The team overhears one of the pack-controllers talking to another pack-controller, something along the lines of "after Justin handles that part, Ethan will come get the rest of us and we can deal with everything from there." Stuff happens, yada yada, then lo and behold Edward comes face-to-face with, well.. not Evil Justin. Luckily, this would be the first mission with their new outfits, and nobody's cover is blown. Most people would probably never guess that Justin is my favorite of the jocks.

Drew starts the Yeerk Peace Movement single-handedly, coincidentally in that same story a cool new OC joins the team (you'll never guess how those two are connected) (the OC and Drew get to be roommates :) it takes some trouble to steal a portable Kandrona from the Visser). The third-graders are the ones to find the morphing cube, Edward pretty much has a heart attack when he sees Geno and his friends playing with it. If any other characters are revealed to have powers in IBVS, they might get unlucky and end up with David's role.

That, to the best of my memory, is all I had planned out.

-

Fourth! The fourth one! This one, similar to most of these, is just a concept.

A simple crossover where the Animorphs were sent to the IBVS universe as a sort of gameshow Ellimist and Crayak were placing bets on.

The Animorphs were informed that there is a group in this universe who were hiding a huge secret. If they discovered the IBVS, Ellimist won bragging rights. If they somehow significantly helped the IBVS, Ellimist won a entirely separate 'game' that he and Crayak were playing. If the Animorphs did not discover anything, Crayak won bragging rights. If they somehow significantly messed something up or made something worse for the Animorphs, Crayak won that entirely separate game.

Cassie, as confirmed in Megamorphs #4, is an anomaly who unconsciously breaks the timeline around her if it is not her own timeline. This show quickly becomes a race against the clock.

-

Other ones I've almost entirely forgotten:

(Similar setup to the casual version) The Animorphs somehow gets swept up in one of the IBVS's issues, assuming it had to do with the Yeerks. I believe they got into a fight with eachother at one point, not sure.

I'm almost certain there was some kind of power swap but the details entirely elude me.

David gets summoned via ritual gone wrong. He's probably possessing Isaac, he's regained his morphing powers, and he does not plan on going back.

One Echos remembered that I didn't: (setup: casual version. similar scene to the scene in #14 The Unknown) The Yeerks try again to do their grab-and-infest tactic from #14 at The Gardens while Foxfield High is having a field trip. The Animorphs, obviously, fight them. When the IBVS are going past on the ride and Nevin gets grabbed, the Animorphs and Controllers comedically stop to watch from the shadows as the IBVS use genuine fucking superpowers to fight off multiple aliens and then continue on the ride. The IBVS definitely thought those were demons. It was too dark and there was too much chaos to figure out who the superpowered kids were, but it would be really funny if Marco recognized Isaac as the kid he flirted with that one time.

[mittensmorgul]

it’s a bummer to see you can’t enjoy the ending. I hope someday you can come around it it. It wasn’t perfect but it didn’t nuke its integrity. i think the heart of the show really shines through and it’s a shame that it’s not being appreciated bc there’s so much shipping drama 😣

Hi there!

I... first of, I really need people to understand this... the travesty of the finale for me has almost nothing to do with “shipping drama.”

Yes, I see the wild conspiracy theories flying around, and I’m honestly concerned for some of those folks and hope they can find a way to make peace with this in whatever way they can, because we aren’t likely to ever get a better answer than that this is legitimately the ending that Dabb thought was best, despite years of us seeing the best of his writing choices and guiding Sam, Dean, and Cas to grow past the roles that Chuck would’ve forced them to fulfill, and that at the end it fell flat because he couldn’t actually come up with a better ending than “this was always their destiny, free will is a lie, and these characters had nothing outside of the revenge quest they’d been raised for since birth and manipulated into over and over for the entertainment of a vengeful god.”

I can see how “surface level” viewers would feel that this one basic narrative point was satisfying, that Sam and Dean had grown beyond their own hopeless cycle of self-sacrifice that had driven the narrative for so many years. The fact that they both acknowledged that they should allow their stories to end in that way was satisfying... but only in the shallowest and most detached read of the narrative. Like, is this really the ONLY thing these two characters learned in the last 15 years? If so, that is BEYOND depressing af.

And even THAT message lost all narrative weight when the two of them were once again reunited in death, as if nothing else had ever mattered in their lives. As if neither of them had ever outgrown the codependency that had driven so many of those previous self-sacrifices and refusals to let go of each other even in death.

So yeah, in the absolute most basic sense, I suppose I can see how casual viewers or people who aren’t actually invested in these characters could find that at least narratively coming back to a starting point.

But narratives don’t actually work that way, and that’s not the point of watching fifteen years of story develop in between.

This story wasn’t JUST about Sam and Dean needing to accept that death might be okay actually.

This story was also about free will, fighting for humanity as a whole but also their OWN humanity and self-identities. In Dean’s case, the absolutely transformative growth from feeling like nothing but a hammer, a killer, a tool to be used. And then less than an episode and a half later, after finally accepting that truth into his heart and using it to defeat the original creator and reclaim the story of his own life for himself... he gets pied in the face after flippantly talking about his destiny and having no choice, and then three scenes later he literally dies impaled on a great big nail... like a hammer...

So I would kindly ask folks who feel satisfied by that shallowest possible takeaway of this episode, and maybe invite folks to look just under that surface. Try to understand why loads of us will NEVER feel satisfied with this ending, and why it truly does feel like the most hopeless version of the story. Like even in defeating Chuck, they could never be allowed to own their own stories and what happened to them after that point was just a twisted version of the “destiny” that drove Chuck’s entire plotline for them anyway.

Please understand where we’re seeing this as horrifically painful irony rather than some beautiful circular narrative about letting go.

For a lot of us, the shipping stuff would’ve been the cherry on top of the sundae. We would’ve been happy with a scoop of plain vanilla, though. We would’ve been happy for anything that honored the journey to freedom, and the choice at any sort of a different life of their own making than literally falling back on a nail fighting off one of John’s unresolved hunts and a vampire who had literally never been named in canon before, yet who Dean instantly recognized somehow... 

but sure, for those of us who felt that “the heart of the show” was all the stuff that the finale actually erased-- that “family don’t end in blood,” and that this was actually not a show about just two brothers but the love of their found family and coming to terms with the choices they actually HAD made for themselves versus the narrative that Chuck kept centering them in DESPITE what they would choose for themselves, the finale basically told us no, everything you ever found of value in this story actually meant nothing. It told us that Chuck’s story for them was their only truth in the end, and their only freedom was to be found in death.

Please, I am begging people, stop trying to gaslight us that this was some beautiful ending. Maybe think for a second that “your read” of the narrative that allows you to find peace with the ending is not what we saw and loved about this story for the 326 episodes leading up to this finale.

And please try to understand that we were not wrong to see the entire narrative through this lens. Because we were literally validated IN CANON, and told that we understood the depth of the story and the characters just fine, actually. There’s literally ONE episode of the entire series that burns it all down in a bewildering pile of wtf. And that’s #327. That throws that entire read out the window to well actually us all back into Chuck’s literal ending... This was literally the ending Chuck wanted to force them to enact for him, and it’s what ended up happening even after they defeated him-- the ultimate Big Bad of the entire series should’ve been defeated, but instead he pulled off one final victory over the entire story.

Becky: No. You can't-- Chuck: I did. Becky: Y- This is just an ending. Chuck: Yeah. I don't know how I'm gonna get there, but I know where I'm goin'. Becky: B-But it's so... dark. Chuck: But great, right? I can see it now -- "Supernatural: The End". And the cover is just a gravestone that says "Winchester". The fans are gonna love it. Well? Becky: It's awful! Horrible. It's hopeless. You can't do this to the fans. What you did to Dean? What you did to Sam? Chuck: There, see? It's making you feel something. That's good, right?

and

Dean: Well, what now? You're not gonna dust us. Chuck: Oh, yeah? Why not? Dean: Because you're holding out. For your big finish. Yeah, we know about your galaxy-brained idea, how you think this story is gonna go. Sam got a little look into your draft folder. Chuck: Sam's visions -- they weren't drafts. They were memories. My memories. Other Sams and other Deans in other worlds. But guess what. Just like you, they didn't think they'd do it, either. But they did. And you will, too. Dean: No. Not this Sam. And not this Dean. So you go back to Earth 2 and play with your other toys. Because we will never give you the ending that you want. Chuck: We'll see.

And even in DEFEAT Chuck thought he understood these characters, thought that having rendered him powerless they would finally take their revenge and kill him, but they didn’t, because he never actually understood these characters at all. And the story he tried to force them into from day one was never about THEM, it was about HIM. 

And then Dean gets like two whole days of freedom and choice and is apparently incapable of making any of the choices that don’t throw him immediately back into Chuck’s favorite story. Like none of that resolution in the previous episode meant anything at all. He even SAYS it in the finale:

Dean: Yeah, no. I think about 'em, too. You know what? That pain's not gonna go away. Right? But if we don't keep living, then all that sacrifice is gonna be for nothing.

And then two scenes later the show gives us the Nelson Muntz HA HA and Dean is no longer living, and Sam is left to carry on as a shell of himself and wander off into Blurry Wife Land to devote any even remotely content moment of the rest of his years to raising a  Replacement Dean to fill the void, and is never able to pick up the pen to write anything better of his own life than Chuck would’ve dealt him in the first place.

So I’m glad that top-layer takeaway is sustaining and enough for you. It wasn’t, and will never be enough for the rest of us.

What was actually real in all of this? We were.

Until we weren’t.

And that’s honestly a shit message to be pushing on people in the wake of it all. So please stop.

I should actually thank you for the kind intent with which your message is phrased, but that doesn’t make it feel less hilariously awful. Though I chose this one to reply to as the least insulting of all the messages currently in my inbox on this subject. So thanks for that, at least.

[spaceandfiction]

How Old is Castiel?

The angel of Thursday is old. Like old old. But fanworks often disagree as to exactly how old 'old' really is. This is understandable, as the show itself is very nebulous about what was going on in pre-biblical times and added more information about the past, some contradictory to pre-existing information, up until its final few episodes. Our friend Cas could be thousands or hundreds of thousands of years old, perhaps even millions or billions. Allow me to answer the question 'how old is Castiel' in the rambling post to follow, which is pointless but ultimately amusing to myself and potentially to others

In the beloved episode "The Man Who Would Be King," Cas describes a variety of memories he's had over his long life, including the line

"I remember being at a shoreline, watching a little grey fish heave itself up on the beach and an older brother saying,

[GIF: don't step on that fish Castiel, big plans for that fish.]

This means that in the universe of Supernatural, evolution took place. Somehow, though, the biblical Garden of Eden and its inhabitants were also real. And not just as the first chosen people of God, or some other cop-out. Season 15 makes it clear Adam is considered the first man, period. Cain, of hair fame, even appears on the show to tell us Cas is Dean's Colette

[GIF: Cain says "then you kill the angel, Castiel. Now that one- that I suspect would hurt something awful"]

That has nothing to do with Castiel's age I just think it's fun. Anyway, if we're going to try to synthesize these two things I think we have to look back to Genesis. Obviously, biblical literalism will get us nowhere close to answering this question. I'm not a religious scholar so things are about to get a bit hazy, but I used an online version of the bible to refresh my memory of chapter one of Genesis. I think if we're going to try and use biblical sources to help us here let's all agree that a "day" in the biblical sense is a period of time stretching for however long that evolutionary process might have taken. God created these things, but he used the regular scientific properties to help them unfold in a direction he enjoyed.

Now the current opinion on when the first fish moved onto land suggests it happened something like 385 million years ago.

BUT WAIT! This is just something Cas remembers, that doesn't mean that's when he was created. We know that Castiel is

[GIF: Chuck calls my beautiful boy Cas "the self-hating angel of Thursday"]

I think this means Cas was the first Angel created on Thursday AKA the fifth day in Genesis. This is the first leap I'm really going to make here, because we don't know this for sure, but I think it would make sense. Not all angels are the same age. We know the archangels, for example, were created before any other angels. I think it would make sense for Chuck to have created different angels with different functions at different times, and a hierarchy established as the archangels incorporated these new siblings into heaven's dynamic. This would make Castiel a relatively 'young' angel, born on the fifth of six possible days of creation. That makes sense in the context of his role: stationed to watch over Earth as a soldier. He became a commander after Anna fell, sure, but he's still relatively excluded from knowledge of Heaven's plans.

We also do not see Cas perform any particular action for Thursday that would explain why it is his domain. The Doylist explanation is that Kripke just picked the angel of the day his show was airing, but that's no fun. I think it would make sense if Cas was created with the dawn of the fifth day and as such, it became his title in heaven.

The fifth day in Genesis is devoted to the creation of swimming water creatures and birds. Birds being significantly younger than fish, evolutionarily speaking, they don't push back Cas' age whatsoever. Fish in general, though, clearly predate their evolution to walk. To get this date, it really depends on what you let count as the 'beginning' of sea life. The first splitting cells in the deep-sea vents? The first fish? Obviously, those writing about these events had no idea what cells were. They also had no idea that a gay angel would one day be a featured character on something called a television show and keep me up at 1 AM over a year after said television show had stopped airing wondering how old he is, and yet here I am

If you were to count any and all living cells in the sea, Cas would sit at a spritely 3.7 billion years of age. If we're starting at not very fishy but still living sea sponges, the figure goes down to about 800 million years old. But I think this seems a bit much. I want Cas to be the fresh-faced cool kid on the heavenly block. To accommodate this desire, I'm willing to say Chuck didn't start counting day five until the first little something one might consider a fish came around which would make Castiel's true (approximate) age 540 million years old.

Do with this information what you will. I have no idea why I provided it. Thank you, Castiel, for being the impetus into scientific exploration

[book-o-scams]

'Sorry Wrong Ed' Alternate Ending Storyboard Sequence

Check out Al Kang's Ed, Edd n Eddy portfolio!

Al Kang worked on the show during seasons 3-4 and had roles on the storyboard and prop teams apparently. (IMDb says he was credited as Al Choi at the time, but it also says he worked on season 1 episodes, which doesn't line up with the timeline he mentioned.. anyway.)

I discovered his portfolio a few months ago after seeing fandom discussion of the alternate 'Sorry Wrong Ed' ending. I was pleasantly surprised to find a few other treats as well! But yes, I even sorta liked what I learned about 'Sorry Wrong Ed' in the process... (I threw in a little analysis comparing the two endings at the bottom)

I noticed Al seemed to mix up the order on these, so I thought I'd try my best to figure out the right order. This was the most confusing one for me to try and figure out the order of since almost all 8 pages were out of order. I think I finally figured out what's going on in the original ending.

So this alternate ending starts at an unknown point with Eddy flat on the ground, presumably injured, picking himself back up. At this point in the final cut of the episode, Eddy has just been squashed by a tree, but this seems more like a different injury, and he's not even retaining his injuries from the truck scene... The scenes with Jonny and Plank from the final cut of the episode seem to not exist at all here, Jonny and Plank don't appear in this sequence.

Anyway, Eddy picks himself up in the middle of an on-going scene, sees Jimmy drop a coin in a jar for Ed, who has inexplicably turned the cursed phone into a scam on his own. Edd is glaring at the off-screen kids, who have somehow learned about this phone and are excited to kill Eddy with it.

Eddy: "Jimmy! No!"

Jimmy answers the phone: "Hello?"

Ed: "HA HA HA"

Edd: "You people don't seriously believe--"

Then we sync up with gags that did happen in the ending of Sorry Wrong Ed, with context that makes its tone a little more sadistic than random. Jimmy's paid phonecall drops the sandbox on Eddy.

This page has the most skeletal dialogue...

Kev: "Yes." (I think he's meant to be fist pumping because Eddy got hurt, more of a "Yes!")

Jimmy: "BAD LUCK EDDY PHONE." (this dialogue must have been a placeholder)

Edd: "HA HA" (sarcastic ha-ha or did Al mean to write "Ed" for this?)

Jimmy seems to offer the phone to Edd.

We sync up again with Edd's denial from the final cut of this episode, except now it actually makes sense that he's so one-track-minded, because there are people actively arguing with him and keeping him disengaged from the victim.

Edd: "There must be a cargo plane overfilled with playground supplies..."

Sarah interrupts him.

RING RING

Sarah: "Oh, that's for me."

Eddy at this point holds Ed responsible, as he should, and starts running to stop Ed or Sarah. Ed offers no explanation for his betrayal.

Eddy: "Ed! What are you doing!?"

Sarah: "Hello?"

Sarah's paid phonecall summons the hippos, the most random moment in the final cut of the episode. Note how both of these slapstick gags were storyboarded on the same generic background, seems like the lane or an empty lot, but clearly a different location than Eddy's front yard from the aired ending.

And that's all we have to go off of!

I'll put my updated opinions below the cut, but suffice it to say, I like the episode a little better now! Knowing what the ending was going to be and trying to figure out the choices that led to the ending we got, I feel more appreciative that it didn't end up a lost episode or something and less annoyed that it was 11 minutes of one joke.

I know I have a reputation for not finding slapstick funny and disliking this episode, but violence was never my only issue. Lots of episodes have lackluster slapstick that I just let wash over me. My point that never gets as much focus is that this episode never felt FINISHED to begin with. It's just a slapstick vacuum with no ending and no point, and it used to be frustrating to me not knowing for sure if my hunch was right or not that it felt like the episode just wasn't working and they had to cobble it together from the scenes that almost worked.

I am surprised to say I like the episode more now that I know that is pretty close to the truth. Judging from this peek into the episode's development, this episode seems to have reached Danny Antonucci's and/or Wootie's (the episode's lead board artist) limit for being mean-spirited with the characters without a reason. I'll still probably avoid rewatching it, but knowing the episode has no ending specifically because it's been trimmed to bare bones is somehow reassuring.

The most obvious flaw to this original ending is the lack of motivation for Ed's or the kids' actions. The kids presumably still weren't in the rest of the episode, so there's really no reason for them to be here other than reiterating the same idea from 'Your Ed Here' and 'The Good Ole Ed' that the neighborhood kids are always looking for a reason to gang up on Eddy, something that isn't really true of those characters in earlier seasons.

I think I can imagine how, on paper (in the writers' outline), this episode sounded funnier. Trying to imagine this ending as part of the whole episode, I think the script's idea of the final joke is that Ed is not satisfied with ending the tests at the point where they tried to return the phone to Rolf. I think Ed converts the curse-testing process to a scam at that point, building off of how Ed already wasn't processing Eddy's safety in anything so far, and is probably more focused on proving to Edd that curses are real (as Ed was previously in league with Evil Tim). The addition of Ed running his own tests and the kids arguing Eddy's point against Edd's while Eddy's busy, does sound more like a complete manic cartoon boiling point than the way the finished episode just petered out with Edd as the sole antagonist. But unfortunately, in visual execution, suddenly piling in so many aggressive characters and so much random violence at once, would only really result in it petering out at a higher volume.

Meanwhile Edd's characterization is made much more structurally sound in the original ending. He's annoyed FOR Eddy's sake, and the only reason he's not actively helping Eddy is because like 3 other characters were supposed to be arguing with him while this was happening. It seems extremely apparent to me that the cuts made to this ending were for the sake of mitigating Ed's reputation in the fandom, as well as the kids', and I think it's really unfortunate that Edd's characterization was the cost for salvaging everyone else's. I'm glad I already considered his behavior in 'Sorry Wrong Ed' non-canon, because now it feels like the reason the aired ending is so out-of-character is just because Edd is basically arguing with the ghost of the original scene. I formally forgive 'Sorry Wrong Ed'. Production turnarounds are tough and AKA did their best to not turn this into another forgotten 'Special Ed' episode that simply wasn't working.

I think ditching the original ending was ultimately the right call. It was not an exemplary episode, but I can admit it's less out of place to have a pure "vacuum of violence" story than it would've been to essentially give the kids a supernatural revenge plot like this. That would've been really weird to have to accept-- Eddy definitely wouldn't want to be friends with anyone at the end of the movie if THIS was their past. Changing it to an unaware Jonny and a questionably aware Plank being responsible, indeed, was a vibe that landed much more like standard EEnE fare. It was weird enough that the kids all saw Santa in JJJ, can you imagine if they all knew curses were real AND participated in attacking a neighbor with one??

If there was a silver lining for me the first time I saw this episode, it was that none of the kids were directly involved in Eddy's suffering. It made the questionable reality of the cursed device slightly more acceptable that only the Eds and Rolf know about the curse. If this ending had happened, I would've reacted the same, but I would've rejected its continuity even more than I do now, because it would just feel like they animated one of the DC Comics (where the kids can blow the Eds up with fireworks at the end or the Eds can randomly be crushed under an avalanche of anvils)-- the art could end up gorgeous but the characterizations don't exactly land as real human beings, the balance this show strives for typically.

And I think that's all I wanted to say! In the end, I found myself liking 'Sorry Wrong Ed' slightly more than I used to, all thanks to this glimpse into how the animation production system morphs the outcome of a cartoon. Thanks so much to Al Kang, for sharing your art and this insight into the industry! I don't know whether he did both the gesture drawings and the revised art, but judging from his other boards I think the cleaned up art is his, and I liked seeing the poses that almost were!

[overthinkingkdrama]

Exit Review: Hotel De Luna

I'm trying to find a new, quick, neat review format that I can use when I don't really have enough to say to give you the whole review. But let's face it. This blog hasn't really been about reviews for a while now. A lot of that comes down to a shifting of my priorities these days. But I definitely am not ready to shut this blog down or stop doing what I've been doing for the past years, which is giving you my completely selfish commentary on Kdramas and how they make me feel.

That said, he's a review for a drama that ended back in September:

Synopsis

Hotel Del Luna  is the 12th full length drama written by the Hong Sisters, and like many of their other works is built around ghosts, folklore, and the sisters' particular brand of adapting previously existing stories into the classic Kdrama romcom format.

The drama tells the story of Jang Man Wol (Lee Ji Eun, aka IU), a materialistic, bad-tempered immortal woman who is the caretaker to The Inn of the Moon (rebranded Hotel Del Luna to keep up with the times) the last pit stop for the sprits of the dead before they pass on to the afterlife. She competently undertakes this task as a way to pay off some heavy duty bad karma from her tragic and bloody past. After centuries spent like this, world-weary Man Wol strikes a bargain to bring hardworking, scaredy-cat and Harvard grad, Goo Chan Seong (Yeo Jin Goo) to work as her hotel manager...very much against his will.

Whether he likes it or not, Chan Seong ends up acting as the human liaison for this luxurious ghost hotel, unlocking the secrets of its CEO and her mysterious past, as well as finding out what his connection is to this magical world.

Review

Story: Hotel Del Luna is essentially a gender swapped Beauty and the Beast set up, but with gods and ghosts. Which, is absolutely my cup of tea. And there's some pretty on the nose symbolism alluding to familiar Beauty and the Beast motifs (like enchanted undying flowers, lonely compelling monsters in high towers, well meaning peasant [boys] indentured to said monsters against their will, fancy staircases...)

But after the first couple of episodes the familiar set up recedes more into the background, and the format becomes a straightforward monster of the week, unlikely partners kind of drama. We've seen this before from the Hong Sisters. Hwayugi does it and Master's Sun does too, to a greater or lesser degree of success. This is clearly the Hongs' comfort zone, and they're good at it. I even noticed a couple story lines that had been taken and tweaked from previous dramas (specifically the spirit marriage plot line which is reused from Master's Sun) and it felt like they wanted to redo some old ideas with a bigger budget and a more experience. For the most part it works.

However, the drama suffers from some serious issues with pacing and tone. While the tone issues even out over time, there is a fair bit of one off slapstick humor which feels disconnected and rather corny in the context of the grander narrative. (Think My Girlfriend is a Gumiho's running fart gag, but classed up slightly.) But by far the pacing is the biggest problem Hotel Del Luna struggles with for the entirety of the run. It feels like the episodes are about a quarter filler. An issue that I feel could have been completely sidestepped had the Hong Sisters had only 1 hour to fill per episodes, rather than tvN's monstrous feeling hour and fifteen minute episodes which only grow longer as the run goes on.

Acting: IU owns this drama. This is Man Wol's world and we're all just living it in, ladies and gentleman. It's not just the fact that IU is consistently the most visually enticing thing in any given scene, she gives the drama vibrancy and life and you feel the lack whenever she's not on screen.

It's not that Yeo Jin Goo isn't a solid young actor, or even that he does a bad job in the drama. He doesn't do a bad job at all. It's just that Chan Seong isn't nearly as complex or dynamic as Man Wol. He's very much playing the uptight straight man to Man Wol's capricious and charismatic anti-heroine, and as such he seems to rather shrink beside her. If you want to see Yeo Jin Goo in a role that stretches him and lets him show of his dynamism, The Crowned Clown was his break out moment of the year. In HDL he is more or less another pretty accessory to hang from IU's arm.

Because the Hongs have been around forever they've also worked with everyone, this drama is a wealth of cheeky cameos and familiar faces and the extended cast makes the world feel full and lived in. There were a number of minor characters I felt invested in and enjoyed watching their plot lines play out.

But let's be real, IU is the single best reason to watch this drama.

Production: HDL is gorgeous to look at. The sets and costumes (especially Man Wol's outfits, which she changes at least 5 times an episodes) are downright luscious. We've come a long way from the distractingly chintzy makeup and costume design of Master's Sun. Hell, it even feels like we're lightyears ahead of Hwayugi, which was just two years ago. The style and motifs of HDL feel like they have a real identity, that they all come from the same place. Real love and thought went into the way the hotel looks and feels, as well as the way the characters dress and the supernatural world they live in.

Feels: The biggest thing about HDL that I felt let down by was the romance. It's not that it was bad, or in some way offensive. Quite the opposite really. The romance in HDL was just okay, just middle of the road. They had an excellent template (Beauty and the mofuckin' Beast y'all) to draw from, and two attractive, talented young people to helm the show and it just...didn't ignite for me. I've seen people praising the chemistry between the leads, and I'm sorry to say I just don't see it. It's okay, it's not leaping out of the screen for me. It's...functional. That's it, that's the big hairy gripe I've got with this show (besides the filler and typical tvN bloat).

What I loved about this drama was the heroine. I loved Man Wol and all of the joy and fun and sentiment and sorrow IU poured into her performance. I felt like IU was establishing herself in this role as a Park Min Young-type force in the drama world, who can carry entire productions on her shoulders. Man Wol in HDL isn't Ji An from My Mister--she can't be; she shouldn't be--but like Ji An she is allowed to be flawed, she allowed to be cruel and miserable and petty and sometimes even wicked. And I love that, because we don't get enough female characters like that, who are allowed to be wrong and yet redeemed, who are allowed to be shallow and bitter and do the selfish thing, and yet still learn from their mistakes and do better.

I like that Man Wol's gray morality isn't abandoned half way through the drama, and her arc isn't dropped or subordinated to Chan Seong's. She is the main character, the driver of the story, and that never changes throughout the run. The "happy ending" of the story is about her, not about the male lead. There's really nothing that annoys me more than a drama that builds up its lead as having a dark side, a checkered past, a hair trigger or a penchant for violence, and then refuses to show that side of the character to the audience for fear of making them unlikable. Female characters especially get this sort of treatment all the time. Man Wol is allowed to be an ambiguous character, she is allowed to fuck up and be forgiven, and ultimately be rewarded. And I think that's fabulous.

Would I recommend Hotel Del Luna? For fantasy fans, IU fans, and misguided Hong sisters completionists (that's mainly just me, I think) I would absolutely recommend HDL. It's definitely one of the better Hong Sisters offerings, stronger on its own merits than Hwayugi, and the closest yet in my opinion to reclaiming the glory of Master's Sun in terms of fantasy romance fun.  8.5/10

[redheadshenanigans]

(This is what happens when I don't have my laptop)

This is the original article. Please read for their explanations.

https://screenrant.com/supernatural-dean-castiel-relationship-biggest-plot-holes-make-no-sense/

20.

Isn't really a thing. His was still talking to one angel. Joshua. In dark side of the moon, he confirms it. Who says the direct order didn't come from Chuck?

19.

Dean wasn't suspicious of Cas, Dean was suspicious, period. He's a Winchester, and if you remember the first person he accused was Sam.

18.

Correction, Castiel was in his celestial form. He spoke to Dean 10 minutes out of his grave, not hiding. Just not in a human vessel and able to communicate. Also, Pamela's eyes were burned out because she was trying to see Cas' true form. He warned her, both Pamela and Cas say that he warned her. Again, no Cas wasn't in his vessel yet. He was still convincing Jimmy to say yes. Otherwise, he would have appeared.

The only people who can hear angels are prophets and people who are part celestial being aka Jack. So Dean being human and all, not really surprising that Cas nearly fried his brain. This is my personal theory. Cas made the assumption that because Dean felt special to him and because he was the vessel that he could or should be able to hear him. However, the Winchester are simply men and Cas realised his mistake and went to get himself a vessel.

17.

Woah woah woah

Hold your horses.

Cas was being hunted. He literally had every Angel and his dog looking for his ass. He was not going to bring that shit to the Winchesters door. There is nothing he loves more than those boys, nothing. Dean was aware of this once Cas made the call. No abandonment simply Cas protecting Dean and Dean protecting Sam.

16.

*coughs* I will explain human relationships to you because you're missing the point. When people totally fuck up, in a biblical sense, those things don't simply go away. Sometimes people need space and perspective. Spending all day, every day in a high-stress environment with someone who is pretty much your opposite in every way is hard on the most balanced of individuals. The Winchesters are not the most balanced of individuals and occasionally they need distance. Cas, like a good friend, fills the space until the boys are back on track.

15.

Wait. So you're acknowledging that Cas was protecting Dean by leaving. Dean who can hold his own against vampires, demons, wraiths etc but will get munched by leviathans. Additionally, Cas would probably get his own ass munched because he'd be so worried about Dean he would become a leviathan snack. So maybe the best plan is to leave Dean (who is super capable at saving his own ass) and take the larger threat away. Yes, good plan Cas.  Very well done.

Sidebar-Cas isn't spiteful. Not sure specifically what refusal to return you're on about but Cas was hunting Metatron for most of season 9 so yeah he felt responsible and yeah he'd be dealing alone because the boys have other shit on.

14.

Love dude. Love.

13.

You know Dean is human right? He's not Chuck. Sam was (as you menationed) going through a rough patch. Then there's family coming back from the dead, Eve, Cas having to go into hiding, alternate realities, time traveling but yeah he's got a second to notice that Cas is heading towards a bad choice with Crowley tugging his sleeve. Dude, what is wrong with you?

12.

You acknowledge that Claire has had a shitty life and now you're denying her a family because you think it's weird. Tell me how is this whole assessment not a) homophobic and b) mean as fuck. Let the girl have a safe place for the love of Chuck. Even if it started out as guilt, they love her and she's family now. She's got a family of people who get her and have her back.

11.

Every time one if them dies is acts as a catalyst, a reminder that they can die. Coming back isn't the point although Dean is kinda hilarious in dark side of the moon 'when I get back, I'm going to be pissed.' When they die, they don't take it for granted. It always feels final and those of us who worship this show feel every death as if its the first. Except for DSOTM which was just funny.

10.

Love dude. Love.

Just to clarify, Cas chooses Dean over and over. To Dean, Cas is the only person that chooses him above everyone, that's reason one why he lets things go. Then you have Cas hitting Dean's radar as innocent. Cas has this child-like quality that means he ducks under many of dean's trust issues (don't be gross) what I mean is when Dean meets a child he regresses. He becomes the person he wanted his dad to be. He is kind and forgiving and lenient. Adults usually don't get this side of Dean but Cas does. Hence forgiveness, always.  Dean forgives Cas because his intention is always pure. He is always trying to do his best.

9.

Please see every Destiel article in existance. Thank you.

8.

*deep breath*

Cas is different. He has always been different, it is mentioned throughout Canon that Cas has always been emotional. Maybe one day they will address why, my personal theory is that Chuck made him that way, just a little bit more feeling than the others and when Cas touched dean's soul in Hell, it lit up his feelings like a Christmas tree. Additionally, Cas sees the Winchesters fighting, they fight and the for humanity, for each other and with them as his role models his moral compass stays slightly truer north than his siblings. Other nice angels include Balthazar, Joshua, Hannah.

7.

I hate to correct you (nah I dont, I love it) but there is no finite, no limitation on their forgivness and its predominantly because of their base personalities. Both Dean and Cas punish themselves more than anyone else ever could. So even when someone else hurts them its never as bad as what they do to themselves. In a way the physical beat downs they give eachother actually strengthen the bond. Every time they fight, one of them stops or walks away. They break the momentum because they love eachother. The love is what stops it, love is the forgivness and they  will always forgive eachother because no-one can punish them more than they do. They are eachothers mirror, they see it. It's another reason why Dean forgives Cas so quickly because Dean knows how bad the angel punishes himself, Dean feels that because he does the same. So he forgives and will continue to do so.

6.

This is simply not true. Dean Winchester doesn't expect anyone to help him ever. He assumes that he is always alone. Exceptions include when Sam is hurt, he asks Cas. Also, if something is bigger and harder than him. If some mystical shit is going down or if angels are involved. If you have a magical being to hand who has aeons of experience then why wouldn't you ask, use, involve them? That's just making your life hard for no reason.

5.

It's called guilt. Google it.

4.

When you love someone, you try to protect them you try to do so even when the things they need protecting from is themselves or you. Yes its annoying and the boys do learn after the fact and yes its inherently frustrating when it takes several episodes for them to realise they should have simply told in the first place. However, for the boys of his a life long habbit that is hard to break and for Cas of his something he has picked up from them.

3.

Dean has fabulous control over his temper. See not killing his grandfather when he really really wanted to. Dean vents when the pressure boils up and over and usualky its relatively painless for those involved. He gets mad and then he gets over it. He's actually very quick to process his anger, unlike his guilt which takes much, much longer. Now Sammy, there's some pent up rage. Less so recently though.

2.

The darkness was messing with Dean constantly throughout season 11. There are multiple scenes where Dean gets a confused expression on his face when talking to Casifer but ultimately he's not sure if he's sure. Most of Casifer's interactions with the boys are brief because Lucifer knows they will figure it out. In addition, Cas says yes in episode 10 and Lucifer reveals himself in episode 14. So... really you're punishing Dean for not noticing in several minor interactions over three episodes. Rude.

1.

Yes they are.

@screenrant just fyi