#also hoping we get to see her directly interact with Rufus this time

[cburambles]

I'm so giddy about the way they decided to re-introduce Elena's character in the new trailer because I was worried at the idea they would take the route of doing what the fandom (who don't read the novels) mostly perceive her with: a comic relief due to her klutzy tendencies & her crush, who constantly need to be hand-held by the boys in the group to the point the fandom interpreation render her as a shy or genki girl/ almost swap her personnality with other female characters as if she was a blank state.

But the devs instead decided to follow throught how she was depicted in the compilation: A flawed, fierce, unapologetic woman from the slums coming from an emotionnally distant family, who was the top student of military school while working in a bar in Wall Market prior joining the Turks ( who used to belittle her all the time, mind you) for the sake to gain people's approval, to prove that she's better than her sister and doesn't hesitate to beat up & torture people in front of their sickly relatives. her gung-ho attitude create a mutual frustration in the group, even Tseng doesn't really get an hold on her.

She also can be competent as she was the top student of the military academy but also did some significant contributions post-OG: She is the one who managed to have Midgar's population mostly evacuated post-Meteorfall, she is the one who goes to ask questions to people during investigations, she is the one who maintain a cordial relationship between the towns around Healen's Lodge by proposing & organizing the distribution of medicine to Rufus & then goes looking for the materials & employees necessary for its production. She is the one who find the Jenova's remains in AC & get them to Rude & Reno before going back to fight the remnants to help Tseng. She was in OG the Turks with the most powerful stats as well.

She's not a character you can swap with Cissneï (like some people apparently hoped?) We don't get to skip or not her boss fight this time. She is re-introduced as her class of origin: a martial artist (instead of giving her a gun like in AC). She is an actual threat & even Rude this time warn the party about it. Which I hope will be kind of omnimous story-wise as I think Avalanche & the Turks may become more & more aggressive toward each other throughout the story.

I think we're also gonna see interesting dynamic in the group, as since she's the newbie with an inquisitive & active side, she may be the player eyes into the dynamics & conspiracy in Shinra.

I also think it's the first time we see a Turks get that violent with Aerith & we know that Reno, Rude & Tseng cares about her. Among the group, the one who is never show feeling sorry about being a Turks is Elena.

I hope Rebirth will finally bring justice to her, with her qualities & flaws. She is as important as her comrades within the structure of Shinra & I want it to be explicitly acknowledged in the story.

[thissisatitle]

I really love all your RufusxElena art! Such a wonderful ship brimming with potential! I especially enjoy the drawings of them in the BC era! I have a real soft spot for BC Elena because she just so cute & I like the thought of them meeting as teens~!

Thank you 💕 Their potential dynamics are interesting, aren't they? Here's hoping that we will finally see them directly interact in future games too!

Despite of how nonsensical the timeline is in BC, her character got me like !!!! in this game as it added a lot of substance to her & nuance. BC made me fall in love for Elena, as we're clearly shown that there's more to her personnality to how ppl tend to reduce her.

I hope SE will bring that out in Remake bcos it add more nuance to her relationship to the Turks as well. They after all knew Elena before she joined them & didn't even know she was the top student of military school, mostly seeing her as klutzy little sister of one of her colleagues who served them drinks. And we see how they are often dismissive of her in other parts of the compilation, even when she bring good points. That influence could be one of the reasons they are like that with her.

I see them as young adults here, physically grown-up & everything that come with adulthood but still trying to figure what is the path that feel right to them as Elena who's a top student, struggle with how people constantly compare her with her sister but how she also lacks of purpose, something that give sense in her life, as she says in BC " Why am I training so hard for? " & Rufus who reflect on some of his mistakes in his schemes, tries to figure out how he can topple his father while also getting a glance to a life outside of his company & where he get to forge a meaningful connection for once.

Exploring that period of time where they learn to mature a bit outside but not fully as Shinra is still looming behind their back is fun. Elena doesn't have the same obligations imposed by hierarchy there so it's so fun to have her not be afraid to boss Rufus around & for Rufus, to bond with someone outside of Shinra & grow to care in a genuine manner & share moments of happiness, anger & sadness, even tho he still tries to justify him crashing in her place as mostly a mean to an end. Despite of her chatty attitude, Elena comes out as someone who still a bit isolated as well, which is a combination of her personnality & how people tend to treat her so Rufus's presence is the most welcome to her.

And of course and Elena being a disaster comedic duo that sometimes veers into dark places is 👌They are a messy people & I love them for it.

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Jim Jarmusch (1953 - present)

When you get someone adept at the art of filmmaking that can resonate at the highest vibrations when creating, that is a blessing in itself, but when you get a jack of all trades, everyman who is deeply observant and unabashedly humanist, and happens to make films to boot, then you start reaching the realms of Jim Jarmusch.  As a Midwestern kid who studied at New York’s famed Columbia University before transitioning to a span in Paris, Jarmusch has the unique gift of deeply appreciating lofty art on the same level as outsider, underground art, and by understanding the context that connects all of them, his appreciation of time is enhanced by association.  In a world that has become obsessed with taking in information with no intention of retention at a breakneck speed, it is refreshing to know that Jim Jarmusch has stood his ground in terms of deliberate pacing and tone.

Most of my Jarmusch familiarity came from the first half of his catalog, and it’d been years since I watched his work, so rather than rank what I remembered while trying to fit first watches in, I decided that the time was right to revisit the entire catalog.  Doing so not only gave me a broader understanding of his overall vision, but it made me realize that a director with 25 years in the game is still capable of making drastic style shifts.  Without further ado, here is my preferential ranking of the 13 Jim Jarmusch films available as of March 2021.

13. Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) This isn’t a bad film, but Coffee and Cigarettes definitely reeks of a narrative-less venture.  The best parts of Coffee and Cigarettes come in attempts at placing what was shot explicitly for the film, versus what was shot during the previous fifteen or so years that Jim Jarmusch directed other feature films.  Taken as a collection of independent vignettes, the film is rich in memorable moments, but for a director so adept at unifying themes with incredible nuance, specifically within the obtuse hurdles presented by an anthology film, Coffee and Cigarettes feels much more like assorted pieces than a fractured whole.  More so than an original idea, the movie feels like a deep cut that true fans will appreciate, casual fans can easily reference, and Jarmusch-laymen can use as an entry into deeper conversations.  If nothing else, see Coffee and Cigarettes for the incredibly entertaining scene where Cate Blanchett acts circles around Cate Blanchett, but Cate Blanchett still does her thing. 

12. Broken Flowers (2005) Bill Murray has been popular longer than I’ve been alive, but somewhere around the beginning of the 21st century, it seemed like the entire world caught Bill Murray fever in a major way.  After a couple of iconic roles in films by Wes Anderson and Spike Jonze, his star was riding new and unfathomable highs, and that was right when Jim Jarmusch teased collaboration via Coffee and Cigarettes before diving headlong into it with Broken Flowers.  Of all the Jim Jarmusch films, this one still feels the least like his style, at least in terms of purity.  Most of its magic comes from surrounding Bill Murray with Jeffrey Wright as a human conscience, as well as a parade of memorable actresses the likes of Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, TIlda Swinton, Chloë Sevigny and more.  The film runs high on charm, and for any man staring at the Autumn of his years, the feelings of romantic regrets are likely relatable on some level.  Interestingly, this project feels like one of the most accessible in the Jarmusch canon, perhaps because of its efficient production presentation.  If there were ever a Jim Jarmusch date movie, it’s Broken Flowers.

11. Permanent Vacation (1980) Upon initial viewing, Permanent Vacation possesses many of the earmarks of a student film, such as limited locations, long passages with minimal dialogue, symbolic monologues in place of standard narrative dialogue, and isolated characters within the context of an implied bigger world.  The strengths that the film possesses, however, are elements that became staples in Jim Jarmusch films : a protagonist either absent of motivation or driven from within, cross-cultural fascination and iconography and the aforementioned patient approach to narrative are some of the key ingredients in the Jarmusch recipe.  As a unique voice in a burgeoning New York collective of filmmakers, it makes total sense that his debut would be both an ode to New York City and an ode to living life like an outsider in the mecca of culture.  This film probably wouldn’t be the best place to start a curious party to the Jim Jarmusch canon, but it would certainly be one to circle back to if their interest is piqued… I would recommend this one to fans of Richard Linklater’s early work for sure.

10. Stranger Than Paradise (1984) Stranger Than Paradise marks the first of many black and white commercial releases from Jim Jarmusch.  As a second film, it has everything you’d want to see from a director finding his place in the industry : the cinematography has evolved and incorporated more movement, Jarmusch is starting to let his personality shine through via musical choices, and the stories are evolving into more relatable narratives rather than ruminations on isolation (while simultaneously becoming much funnier).  Jarmusch still isn’t afraid to let his films breathe, however, which leaves his distinct style present even among the areas of growth.  The incorporation of a strong female lead presence (thanks to Eszter Balint’s brilliant performance) showed that Jarmusch had a full understanding when it came to presenting stories for everyone on the screen, rather than limiting his voice to male characters.  The casting of John Lurie and Richard Edson opposite one another is kinetic both visually and in terms of performance, as each of their versions of uptight laid-backness compliment one another.

9. Night on Earth (1991) Of the anthology films that Jim Jarmusch has created, Night on Earth is possibly my favorite.  More so than any of the others, it captures the intriguing aspects of human nature by juxtaposing them directly against the very human tendency to judge books by their covers.  With the vast majority of the film taking place in a handful of taxi cabs, we are left in the hands of the actors and actresses in the hopes that their interactions, chemistry and dialogues can keep us captivated, and the cast presented in the film completely stand up to the challenge in their pairings.  Jarmusch also presents movie audiences with a way to show different worldly locations without having to lean on the cinematic and iconic shorthand that we are used to, such as the Hollywood sign, Times Square, the Eiffel Tower and so on… instead, we are shown places that locals would inhabit in all of their rundown and lived in glory, which in turn, amplifies the grounded realness of the interactions, as if we are looking at a fictional blueprint for what would later become the popular HBO series Taxicab Confessions.  This film sits in-between two of Jim Jarmusch’s most iconic releases, so it is easy to see how this one could be easily lost in the shuffle, but it is certainly not a film to be missed, especially for those who would consider themselves Jarmusch fans.

8. Paterson (2016) Jim Jarmusch brings a humble sense of humanity to all of his films, but Paterson stands out for its nuance, subtlety and confidence in its patience.  Much like Forrest Gump or a less abstract Charlie Kaufman film, Paterson dwells in an interesting realm of an unknowingly wise protagonist tethered to the center of tornado-like emotions and experiences from all they encounter.  Jarmusch manages to take this framework, dial down the absurdity to a sneaky degree, and ramp up the grounded elements to the point where a viewer cannot help but graft pieces of themselves onto the events presented.  As a musician with a day job, I can also relate to Paterson’s displays of beauty found in redundancy, and the peace that comes with understanding intentions for creative expression, even if others see it in a different light that you do.  While not the grandest of Jim Jarmusch gestures, it is without a doubt one of the most sincere and heartfelt of his selections.  

7. Mystery Train (1989) Mystery Train marks the first definitive signs of Jim Jarmusch knowing, understanding and utilizing the tools he’d come to favor in a manner that seemingly resonated what he pictured in his head.  Memphis as a setting provides the juxtaposition of beauty and urban decay captured in Permanent Vacation; placing our audience on a journey with two foreign tourists brings the worldly view introduced in Stranger Than Paradise; and, most importantly, all of the coolness and humor that thrived in Down by Law returns triumphantly.  Jarmusch also puts anthology filmmaking on the table, which is important for two reasons… first and foremost, it would become a style he would go on to thrive in, returning to it immediately with Night on Earth and once more with Coffee and Cigarrettes… secondly, as for Mystery Train directly, it allowed Jarmusch to surround Masatoshi Nagase and Youki Kudoh (burgeoning stars Western audiences were unfamiliar with) and Nicoletta Braschi, and surround them with his talented friends like Steve Buscemi, Cinqué Lee, Rick Aviles, Vondie Curtis-Hall and Tom Noonan, as well as legendary musicians like Tom Waits, Joe Strummer, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and Rufus Thomas.  Between these high profile castings, the stylish cinematography and the heartfelt quirkiness of the leads, Mystery Train feels like the film where everything came together in the best ways possible.

6. Down by Law (1986) To my knowledge, Down by Law would be considered the breakout success of the Jim Jarmusch library.  John Lurie returned to the fold to provide another performance infused with coolness, but this time around, up and coming Italian star Roberto Benigni and iconic recording artist turned actor Tom Waits share lead duties, forming an unlikely trio with monstrously dynamic on-screen chemistry.  Jarmusch not only switched things up for himself by setting the film in New Orleans rather than centering it around New York, but he turned the jailbreak genre on its ear by focusing on the escapees rather than the escape itself.  The conflict between Jack and Zack is seeded with their individual problems with women (which both include emasculating each man by chastising them for not using domestic violence), as well as each of them ending up framed prior to imprisonment, which makes Roberto the de facto peacemaker despite his huge language barrier.  Down by Law marks the first time that edginess found its way into a Jim Jarmusch film, and while it never became his forte, it wasn’t the last time that element was key to a Jarmusch film.

5. The Limits of Control (2009) When reflecting on The Limits of Control, the word patience comes to mind : the patience of accepting repetition… the patience of a trilingual film with minimal dialogue… the patience of a film that shows much more than it tells.  As a take on noir, the Jim Jarmusch variety brings to mind films like Le Samourai, where actions speak infinitely louder than words, choices come with a definitive set of consequences, and we as viewers are allowed to consider what we are presented with in real time, just like our protagonist.  The coolness levels are also pushed to maximum levels in this film, but then, what’s a Jim Jarmusch film without a generous dose of cool in it?  While it is never rightly stated, I like to pretend that The Limits of Control takes place in the same universe as Ghost Dog, with Raymond having evolved into The Lone Man using the tools left behind by Ghost Dog.  Maybe it’s a bit of embellishment on my end, but it makes an already great film have that little extra touch of pizazz needed to stand out from the pack. 

4. Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) While Jim Jarmusch isn’t necessarily a household name, he is relatively well known, and for many familiar with his work, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai served as the introductory film for them.  The casting of Forest Whitaker in the lead role continued the trend of higher profile names joining the Jarmusch fold, and stylistically, the mixture of Ghost Dog’s hitman and samurai worlds with that of the mafia film (which was about to see a popularity resurgence in light of the recent premier of The Sopranos) was alive, kinetic, and rich with varied personalities.  Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai also stood as an early example of RZA’s talents in the realm of scoring films, which would later go on to be a key element of Kill Bill: Vol. 1.  For a movie with a more traditional approach, perhaps even the most accessible approach of all Jarmusch films, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is anything but conventional, and it’s the sense of pride it wears in its non-conventionality that makes it the cult classic it became.

3. The Dead Don't Die (2019) Not since Dead Man has Jim Jarmusch picked such a distinct genre for a film of his, or decided to include such a long list of high profile names in character roles.  While the sense of doom that usually comes with zombie movies is present, Jarmusch sticks to his toolkit by focusing solidly on the human element during the early portions of the film where many people would already have zombies doing the narrative and visual heavy lifting, and in turn, the audience finds themselves drawn deeper and deeper into the story well before the undead arrive.  Of all the Jarmusch films, The Dead Don’t Die has the rare designation of being the only one that seems to comment on film itself, be it references to iconic characters from other properties, ruminations on film as a format, or even discussions centered around film fandom.  While most films tend to stay around from outright explanations of whatever the root cause of the zombies are, The Dead Don’t Die uses the vacuum as a brief opportunity to make a comment on polar fracking and other climate/environment-altering processes.  Even the zombies get the most on-screen humanity received since the days of George Romero’s Dead series, a refreshing change of pace that has been often ignored in recent films centered around the undead.  Films like this one prove that Jim Jarmusch has the capacity to make films about most anything, and the further he strays from his supposed comfort zone, the seemingly better the films get.

2. Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) For a man so dedicated to being aware of the passage of time, a man with a deep appreciation for nostalgic cool of all eras, and a man with a rich and layered appreciation for art and music from across the board, it makes total sense that Only Lovers Left Alive would be a celebration of all these aspects framed as an eternal love with a deep cross-section between the original lovers and the tales of vampires.  The vampiric leads allow Jarmusch the perfect vehicle to seamlessly tie stellar creativity from any point in time with a singular line, and the deep implications of our protagonists' names suggest a subtextual lore that one could likely build a cinematic universe around.  For a venture with aspirations this lofty, the casting must fit the call, and the main four of Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, John Hurt and Jeffrey Wright build a solid foundational square for all characters to navigate deep emotions freely.  If you’re looking for Twilight and Interview with the Vampire fare, you’ll probably long for more, but if films like Let the Right One In are more your speed, then Only Lovers Left Alive will likely be a revelation.

1. Dead Man (1995) While Jim Jarmusch never lost his auteur sensibilities, Dead Man marked his initial foray into the world of larger scale traditional productions through the vehicle of the period piece.  Jarmusch films were not unfamiliar with showing us a broader view of the world we know, but transposing his trademark style into the world of the Western marked a bold (but ultimately rewarding) turn.  With Neil Young serving as his Ennio Morricone, Jarmusch dusted off his black and white filmmaking equipment and seemingly told the production design team to blend all of the best parts of Spaghetti Western and German Expressionism.  Johnny Depp, the film’s star, was riding the wave of success afforded from What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?, Benny & Joon and Ed Wood, and Dead Man carried that momentum right along.  As for his Western universe, the list of names that Jarmusch chose to populate it with is where his style stood out : Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Robert Mitchum, Iggy Pop, Gibby Haines, Gabrielle Byrne, Billy Bob Thornton, Alfred Molina and more drive home Depp’s “fish out of water” characterization convincingly.  Based on its period-piece designation, Dead Man signalled a drastic leap in style utilization for Jarmusch, a creative rarified air that he would return to for several future productions.

[b4nelightwood]

The love of these two is what the tales call true love.

hey guys!! this fanfic is something i thought while listening to Christina Perri's "human" and i just couldn't get it out of my head. it's pov Ben. i hope u like and forgive me for 1580 words! hope you like it ♡

summary: During a meeting for the beginning of Bohemian Rhapsody recordings, Roger remembers the love of his life with photos and thrill everyone in the room.

warning: a bit of angst, i think.

Ben's Pov

Everyone is entering the meeting room and sitting in their respective places. Roger is the last to come in, carrying a pendrive.

Today is one of the first official meetings for the beginning of the Bohemian Rhapsody recordings, let's go through the script and interact with the members of Queen, Roger and Brian (I'm very nervous). They will tell us a few things about their lives and the band, enough to interpret our role as best we can.

- Well, good afternoon, everyone! I'd like to start, and you'll realize that each story is worse than the other- Brian laughed, accompanied by almost the entire room. He's the first to speak, which is great since Gwilym is really nervous. I look from corner of my eye and I see him looking at Brian with his eyes almost locked, absorbing everything that the man with giant white hair has to say.

I take one look at Roger. My God, the man is shaking, looking at the corner of the room with a look that it seems that he saw a ghost. I ask if everything is okay? Do I offer some water? I've never seen him like this, since I met him he's super confident, communicative, and rarely stands still, let alone with that expression. Okay, I need-

- Now Rog, it's your turn. Don't tell anything about that, right? You know what I'm talking about. - I'm interrupted by Brian, who laughs and winks at the end of the sentence. This guy is very funny, I know him a little while but every time we meet he makes some old joke or talks something nonsense that is very funny, makes our days here more fun.

Roger still is a little disturbed and walks to the projector at the back of the room, inserting the USB stick. An image of a smiling short haired woman is projected on the big screen next to me and I find myself delighted with her smile. So sweet and cheerful that it made me smile automatically. I look at the other people in the room who are also smiling but with an expression of doubt at the same time, minus Brian ... His smile is sad, melancholy ... I wonder who this woman is.

- Y/N. This woman was called Y/N. My first wife. - Roger's voice becomes present and I look at him. I can see his eyes shining with tears and a small side smile. Damn. I think even i am crying. - You probably don't know much about her since she was super reserved and rarely posed for paparazzi and stuff ... She passed away 6 years ago. Cancer. - He laughs sarcastically and bitterly.

The image changes to a picture very old. Roger still had the long hair then probably it's of the 70s. He was lying on the hood of the car next to her while she laid her head on his extended arm and the two looked at each other and smiled as if one were the sun of the other. The mood in the room is suffocating me. The next picture is of their wedding, Y / N is laughing and looking at the camera with a face full of cake while Roger is looking at her with a smile that I personally have never seen on his face. I hear a sigh. I know it's not Roger. Well, I'm not the only one who feels the weight of the love that radiates from these photos.

- We met at a show. Hers, not mine. She sang slow songs at a small local pub in New York, we went there to make a presentation soon after Queen started to make a success. Wow ... Her energy enchanted me. I remember standing in place just looking at her, expressionless, just looking, as she put all her soul into the music, into her performance ... - His voice breaks a little at the end and I hear a sniff. I'm sure it was me but at the moment I'm too focused listening to the older man's excited voice to hold back my tears. She wore a blue floral dress with a brown boot that certainly didn't matched. - He laughs - Her body had several tattoos, I got lost in each one ... Of course being me, I followed her after the show but she said that she knew me and wanted nothing to do with me. In her words "I don't want to get sick with the amount of saliva that has already passed through your mouth, ew." It took me about 3 months to convince her to at least kiss me.

The photo shifts to Y/N on a hospital bed holding a newborn baby as she looks at him as if that little baby were her world. Was he Rufus? I think so. Then the photo changes again. Now there are three children running around her while she has a very large belly but smiling so big that even my cheeks hurt

- Our fourth son. Guys, I literally became a family man! Clearly influenced by John! - Everyone laughed. - It wasn't in my plans to have more than two children, but whenever I saw her dancing with our children... I simply... I... I couldn't imagine a future with only two children and missing the sweet moments in which she put some romantic music and supported one of our children on their own feet and left dancing around the room so softly or when she taught them tap dance. - He sighs, wiping a stubborn tear that fell on his cheek.

Now the new picture is one of her next to Freddie Mercury while the two sing karaoke. She had short hair all messed up, eyes closed and her arms held high as Freddie had his back to her, shoulders leaning, eyes still closed. They seemed to be having a great time.

- This was one of my favorite moments of hers. She loved joining Freddie and Jim to sing karaoke, especially on Sundays. The three of them had a great time... They shouted, danced and laughed a lot. She felt very free. - I see he was going to say more, but he stopped. Holy Shit. I'm crying.

The next photo is a more current one. Y/N and Roger, already elderly, are holding hands and face glued, looking to the camera with giant smiles. Smiles that radiate love and even tighten my heart. My tears are coming down uncontrollably now and from the amount of sniffles I hear, it's certainly not just me crying. -That was our last picture with her healthy. Our 27 year anniversary. Yes. 27 years. A month later she was diagnosed with terminal cancer... - He changes the photo and now I feel that my heart was torn from me. Was it a picture of them with their 5 children (when another came up?), Lying on the grass and everyone looking at the camera with bright, happy smiles. And finally, he switches to a photo where Y/N is lying on the hood of a car, probably on the same day as the first photo, with his face facing directly at the camera, his little brown hair sprawled across the hood. She was perfect.

I think Mr. Taylor notices the sniffles and hiccups that fill the room and then removes the pendrive. I take a deep breath. The emotional charge is gigantic ... Everyone is overwhelmed by the love and sadness that those pictures radiate and I honestly don't know what to say or do.

- Well folks, I just wanted to show you the most important part of my life so you can portray it as best you can. - He turns to me - I know the film will not focus on us so much, but I hope that in the short period in which to portray, can show how important this period was for me. How important she is to me. - I feel the weight of each word, I feel every letter burning in my ear. Damn, their love, the love he still has for her, is too strong and I feel thirsty for air. He turns to the living room. - I hope it helped. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen! - He gives his typical smile. Great, we're back to normal programming.

They all rise up still recovering from tears and excessive information and leave the room. I feel compelled to go and hug him. Ok, we do not have intimacy yet but I know he likes me and I obviously like him so I go there!

I walk slowly, I still don't know if I say something or just hug and I leave but I can not even think of something because when I see I'm already in front of him and maybe he has felt or my crying face has denounced but he embraces me. I cannot contain it and I cry the rest of the tears I was holding. He cries, too. I think the hug lasted for about 20 minutes, I don't know ... but when it ended I take one last look at it and leave the room without speaking. I stop in the hallway and take a deep breath, I need to say something then I go back to the room but as soon as I get to the door, I see him facing the big screen smoothing the last photo he showed.

I didn't know her and I don't know him, but one thing I know. The love of these two is what the tales call true love.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

8, 11, 17, 22

Hoo boy this got LONG so I put it below a cut, haha.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

Ahaha, yes, yes I have. Occasionally I’ve gotten very random, strange anonymous asks that are angry but not I don’t think directed at me? But anyway one time I did straight up get anon hate and it was because I shot down a previous anon’s ask about Flynn being Jewish.

How it went down is basically a friend of mine (not tagging her because if for some reason a bored person wants to give me hate for this I’m not going to let them go after her as well) came up with the idea that Lucy could be Jewish. This is because of the ways that we see Lucy handle the concept of fate, faith, and God in season one, some fun etymology we discovered about the name Rittenhouse, and because Lucy never specifies what religion she grew up in. Now, my friend made a post in which she went into a lot of detail about the name thing, rather than the bits about Lucy’s handling of faith/God.

I reblogged the post, and then I (instead of my friend for some reason) got an anon saying that based on the research they’d done on Flynn’s names, Flynn could be Jewish.

I responded as politely as I could and explained that Flynn couldn’t be seen as Jewish, and that if you wanted to write him as Jewish for an AU that’s fine, but Flynn is Catholic. Unlike Lucy, who never states her religion or gives us any real clue which religion she believes in--we just know she is spiritual--Flynn is seen in a Catholic church, talking to a priest. Flynn is also from Croatia, which is overwhelmingly Catholic as a religion. The anon also pointed out that Asher could be a Jewish name, I pointed out in response that Judaism is passed down through the mother and that given how important his mother was to him and how Flynn literally never mentions his father, it was more likely he’d go with his mother’s religion growing up.

My point was basically what my point always is: writers leave gaps in the writing, and we can use those gaps to decide whatever “headcanons” we want. But if you want to see a character as something that directly goes against canon, that’s not a headcanon, that’s an AU. So if you wanted to write Flynn as Jewish, you could, but it would be an AU, you could not say given the evidence that it was canon. With Lucy, you can.

Now, I do think maybe my friend’s emphasis on name meaning and origin and such made the anon think that was all you needed, when that was actually only part of why my friend and I decided Lucy could be Jewish. But in any case, I immediately got anon hate from someone telling me I was anti-Semitic and a bitch and so on.

I responded to the first anonymous message, trying to be firm and a little sassy but also polite. I tried to pretend that the anon was my much-younger sister, and thought about how I’d treat her if she acted this way towards me: with firmness and some sarcasm but also with love.

I explained my reasoning over again, had some fun gifs, and ended with telling the anon that I was sorry they were having a bad day and to please take care of themselves, and that I knew they were a better person than this.

The anon sent another nasty message, which I just deleted. I also privately messaged the original anon, who had reached out to me to continue our talk privately, and I asked her if she was the nasty anon and if so, she was welcome to express any opinion she wanted to my face, and I was happy to talk with her honestly if she had more frustrations than she was letting me know about. She told me that the anon was a friend of hers and that she had been bullied in another fandom, and that her friend, seeing this, had jumped the gun with me in protectiveness towards her friend.

I was not surprised to find out that both these people were young teenagers.

I told her I understood overprotective friends, since I am one, and told her that if she or her friend was struggling with anything that I was always happy to listen and provide what support I could. That was, as far as I can recall, the last of our interactions.

What the first person, with whom I was privately messaging, didn’t tell me (and I chose not to call her out on it) was that she has publicly on her blog talked about how I’d shot down her “Flynn as Jewish” idea, implying I was anti-Semitic. She was, in our PMs, clearly horrified that her friend had said such awful things to me and told me she’d immediately started telling her friend to back down the moment she saw what was happening, so I think that she didn’t, being so young, realize the cause and effect of her post. I chose not to call her out, since I didn’t see what good it could do, and since I felt she was genuinely contrite.

And, well, she was (and is) just a kid.

So there you have it, the time I got anon hate. If I’ve gotten anon hate before or since then I don’t remember it. I like to think of it as a cautionary tale, for other young people out there. Be careful what you post on your blog. What you post is public, everyone can see it, and people will take action or form opinions accordingly. So if you say something, you have to be prepared for the consequences, whatever those are, and to take responsibility for them if so. You might think you’re venting and “oh I didn’t really mean that!” but once it’s out there... nobody can tell that you didn’t really mean it or that you were just letting off steam. They’re going to take you seriously.

I think it’s also a classic tumblr example of looking for something problematic and jumping down someone’s throat. I said that the main heroine of a TV show could be seen as Jewish, and was excited over that fact, and then when another person suggested that a Catholic character could be Jewish instead, and I pointed out that would be against established canon, got called anti-Semitic. When... um... I had just been celebrating... the idea... of the main character... being able to be written in fanfic as Jewish... uh...

Let’s hope it’s the only time I get that experience, shall we?

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?

Um... I mean, Wyatt is popular or unpopular depending on which part of the fandom you ask. I liked him in season one as a foil to Flynn (they have an insane amount of parallels) and I thought there was a lot of potential to make him very much like Eliot in Leverage. I thought he could be a lovely Soft Boi. Season two severely disappointed me, but I decided that as a writer the possibility of writing a redemption arc for Wyatt intrigued me and would be a fun challenge (this is a habit of mine as a fanfiction writer--I take bad shit that happened in canon and fix it, or show how I would’ve done it differently, as in my Age of Ultron Redux).

So I like Wyatt, but I don’t excuse his behavior, and I understand why a lot of people don’t like him and why he’s unpopular with a large portion of the fandom now. I see opportunities with him but he was a toxic pile of shit so I don’t blame anyone for just nope’ing out.

What I don’t understand is when people take it to huge extremes like saying they want to set him on fire, or doing a huge meme on twitter about all the violent ways his own kids can murder him, but I see that sort of thing in every fandom about various characters and I’ve never understood it so that’s nothing new.

Actually I also don’t think a lot of people care about Jess? I don’t know, I just don’t see her a lot. I think people just don’t quite know what to do with her? If you’re a Garcy shipper you can have her be with Wyatt but that’s all you really need, and if you’re a Lyatt shipper you turn her into a one-dimensional bitch, so... I love Jess, I love her so fucking much, she deserved so much better and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise.

17. Instead of XYZ happening, I would have made ABC happen…

Instead of Lucy and Wyatt turning into “you’re in love with Lucy” so quickly in season two, I would have just had it still be a crush like at the end of season one where they said “I’m open to possibilities” and then have had Jess come back. Honestly, shoehorning Lucy and Wyatt together so quickly was the one thing that was wrong with season two. Unfortunate that it was such a big thing.

Wyatt spent all of season one showing us time and again how he was still deeply in love with Jess. He wanted her back not just out of guilt but because he still loved her. It’s understandable that, after he screwed up in 1x13 and all that went down in 1x16, he’d start to realize he needed to move on, and Lucy is his close friend and a beautiful woman and one of the few people in the world who knows about time travel and so he wouldn’t have to hide a large part of his life from her.

But to go from “I’m open to possibilities” and considering moving on to “deeply in love” in just six weeks? Um. No. Especially when in those six weeks, he and Lucy are separated. He didn’t interact with her. That sounds not like love of Lucy herself but fixation on an idealized version of Lucy in his mind.

Lucy certainly wasn’t focusing only on Wyatt all those six weeks. I think that Lucy’s arc in season two is mostly unchanged if you take away her romance with Wyatt. She was kidnapped by her own mother, who then tried to brainwash her, and she was about to commit suicide when Wyatt and Rufus found her. That’s plenty of reason for Lucy to be drinking vodka and spiraling. Let Lucy deal with those things while Wyatt deals with the return of Jess.

Would I have had Jess still be Rittenhouse? Y’know, I’m not sure. I do think Rittenhouse had a hand in her death and my theory is that in the original timeline Jess was a reporter, because Wyatt states that Kate Drummond, a reporter “even looks like [Jess]” after he sees her and Lucy has just told him who Kate was. This implies that Kate was similar to Jess, i.e. had the same job as Jess. My bet is that Jess was murdered by Rittenhouse because she, like Flynn, found out about their existence. So bringing her back... yeah I think that would mean either she never found out about Rittenhouse so there was no reason for her murder, or she was a Rittenhouse agent.

Either way, I sure as fuck wouldn’t fridge her. I don’t think I’d have her and Wyatt end up together as endgame, because I’ve been in and seen others in abusive relationships (platonic, familial, and romantic) and I’m a firm believer in the idea that just because an abusive or toxic person changes their unhealthy behavior doesn’t mean the person they dumped that behavior on owes it to them to stay with them or go back to them. Jess was Wyatt’s high school girlfriend. They’re in their thirties. That means she put up with his shit for half of her life.

I would have Jess and Wyatt ultimately realize, after Wyatt has done his appropriate redemption arc, that they aren’t meant for each other anymore and part ways amicably and she ends up with Amy who is of course brought back from nonexistence. Then I would have Flynn and Lucy be together romantically for the endgame, with implied Wyatt/Lucy/Flynn a la Leverage.

So yeah. No forced ridiculous bullshit “we’re in love uwu” Lyatt in season two. Focus on Jess/Wyatt instead. Lucy’s got enough on her plate already.

22. Popular character you hate?

I actually don’t think I hate any character that’s popular. The characters I hate are characters we all love to hate. I mean, I hate Wyatt’s behavior in season two and think he’s got a lot of shit to work through and I write him as realizing that and redeeming himself, which doesn’t sit well with the Wyatt-worshipping side of the fandom I’m sure, but I don’t interact with them and they don’t interact with me so? *shrug*

[drgnsyr-blog]

There’s an interesting contrast developing as we watch Sam and Dean interact with the British Men of Letter. Mitch and Ketch are obviously meant to be presented as the British counterpoints to Sam and Dean - the Man of Letters and the Hunter, the Intellectual and the Brute, the Nerd and the Jock. But as we watch the Winchesters interact with the Men of Letters we see where these parallels break down. Yes, Sam may roll his eyes when Dean talks about his need to go punch something, but SAM is the one who gets the major kill against the Alpha Vamp that episode (just like he previously did against Ramiel). In similar fashion, while Dean is annoyed by Sam wanting to listen to lore podcasts on a road trip, DEAN is the one with the “Of course we know that” snark when Mitch comments about how they’re fighting a pureblood werewolf (just like he previously was the one to recognize Lady Bevell’s spell despite her assumption he wouldn’t).  Sam and Dean *enjoy* different things about hunting, but they are both good at all of it. If they were roleplaying characters, their sheets would be damn near identical. They choose to hunt together, but like most American hunters they are perfectly capable of going solo - and have at various points in their careers. Sometimes American hunters may have to turn to someone like Bobby to research or “ask around” for them, but ultimately Bobby isn’t really a lore specialist. He’s just another hunter who has lived long enough to know more than most (and still own a house he can store books in). While some hunters have partners, a lot of those partnerships are temporary, with the only exceptions seeming to be family (Ellen/Jo, Mary’s Parents, Sam/Dean, Cesar/Jesse). By contrast, the division of labor in the British Men of Letters is RIGID. Before coming to America, Mitch has never killed anything. Ketch, on the other hand, is a point and click execution with no concern with what he’s being told to kill or why. After all, the whys aren’t his job, just like the killing isn’t Mitch’s.  This division of reponsibility is how the Men of Letter’s maintain their callousness (that is causing their tension with the Winchesters). They are structured much like an insurance company. Insurance companies use division of labor to ensure than no one person is responsible for saying yes or no to a claim. This is important because if someone knew that they were responsible for denying someone coverage for a life saving procedure or compensation for the loss of their home, they probably wouldn’t be willing to do it. Instead, one person’s job is simply to crunch the numbers and give a report on the costs and benefits. Someone else looks at those numbers, now removed from any emotional context, and determines what the company should cover. And usually someone else entirely actually deals directly with informing the client and dealing with their complaints. Likewise, Mitch’s job is to figure out what they’re up against and how one would defeat it. His report would include whether it is capable of being a threat, actually killed people, and might kill people in the future. His higher ups then decide whether it should be eliminated. Ketch then executes that decision. He doesn’t meet with the psychic’s abusive parents. He doesn’t see the horror she’s lived through or hear her cry because she didn’t mean to hurt anyone. He just eliminates the threat once it is determined to be one.  The breakdown of this division is already starting to affect Mitch, who is having to face the fact the fact that his reports don’t just lead to dead monsters. Sometimes they lead to dead children and crying mothers. Ketch, is less likely to be effected as he is presented not only to be compared to Dean but to be contrasted with Mitch. And yet, it is also possibly that working cases with the Winchesters will force HIM to pay attention to the human elements for the first time in the same way Mitch is being forced to pay attention to the deaths for the first time. Ultimately, though, Sam and Dean aren’t going to be able to be brought into the British Men of Letter’s fold. When dealing with the angels, only the people at the top got the whole picture. Here we are seeing the same thing. Sam and Dean aren’t lower level, only part of the story guys. And I am really, REALLY hoping this leads to Sam and Dean realizing their only way to get the successes of the Men of Letters isn’t to join the Brits but to restart the American chapter themselves. They are too skilled, too experienced, and too knowledgable to be anything other than senior management. Their facilities may be 60 years out of date, but they still HAVE them. And if they get Mitch [and Ketch] to defect, then they will have the info they need to update them. It’s actually kind of ridiculous how long they’ve been sitting on that Bunker with out creating somesort of network to give the rest of the hunter community access to their resources. They’re pushing 40. We’ve already seen one episode creating parallels between Dean and Rufus. The next logical step is for Sam to become Bobby. Or, you know, Dumbledore.