#also this is the ep where a reporter says to sam that she saw her 'with a nice-looking young man' (daniel)

[fighting-naturalist]

Sam and Daniel in "Covenant"

[alaskarcenciel]

...And freeze !

words : 1305

ep 13: Come back to the compound

11th of July:

When they arrived at the compound, Fury and Maria Hill were there to welcome them back.

Fury: Nice to see you back Wanda, meeting in 5 minutes to debrief about the mission.

Wanda: Well, I was hoping, maybe... I could take a few days to be better before really coming back ?

Fury: Hm, we'll talk about that after the meeting.

He left for his office to prepare the meeting, Hill helped the team with their bags, asking how they were doing.

Sam and the others followed her to the meeting room, where everyone sat down, waiting for the boss to come back. Wanda sat next to Sam, and Natasha went to the other side of the room, Steve stayed close to her, so she wouldn't be left alone in a corner. Hill sat on the desk, like always, so she could be close to the connected table to lead the meeting.

Fury finally arrived, but didn't sit, he just stayed close to Hill, next to the desk, and launched the files about the mission.

Fury: So, how did it go? Is the Hex still there? I can see that Wanda is back with us, which is a good thing, and was the first goal of the mission, but the Hex and the citizens of Westview were also a goal, what can you tell me about it ?

Steve: The Hex isn't here anymore, Wanda made it disappear, and the citizens are apparently snapping out of it.

Wanda: I made it disappear thanks to Sam, without her it would still be there, and so I would.

Natasha: To be fair, Sam almost did the mission alone on her own.

Sam: That's not true, we took all the decisions together, the four of us.

Fury: Four? I thought I sent only the 3 of you?

Sam: Darcy helped us a lot, she is the 4th.

Fury's left eyebrow raised. Hill's head tilted, and she frowned her eyebrows, wondering.

Hill: Who's Darcy?

Steve: A scientist who works for the FBI, she was here all the time.

Natasha saw Sam open her mouth to say something, the spy closed her eyes, thinking she was going to say something bitchy on her, like "Darcy was more useful than Romanoff", because apparently that was how it was working now, whenever Sam could say something mean about her, she did. So she closed her eyes, preparing herself for the barb. But it didn't come.

Sam: She's friends with the woman Thor likes, you know, Jane.

Fury nodded, and Natasha opened back her eyes, surprised. She glanced at the French woman, and tried to smile at her, but she didn't get any other answer than a death look, like always. She should be used to it now, but it still hurts her.

Hill: Okay, so the Hex is not here anymore, the citizens are alright, and Wanda is here, I think we can say the mission was a success.

Fury: I think too, I'll need all your reports, including yours, Wanda, and that's all for today. Eat, drink, rest, do whatever you want today, but tomorrow you'll come back to training. All of you. You can go now, except Wanda and Sam, I need to talk to you.

Hill, Steve and Natasha left the room.

Fury: So Sam, you did most of the mission on your own, it's a success because of you, and that's why you should stay, I already told you and I'm about to say it again, we need you, I need you, you're promising, so I would like you to stay, if you don't wanna be on the Avengers' team, I can put you on Coulson's, I think you've already met them and you seemed to get along with them well, especially Daisy, so-

Sam: No, it's fine, I'll stay with the Avengers.

Wanda smiled, while Fury frowned his eyebrows, surprised.

Fury: Oh? You changed your mind?

Sam: I don't wanna leave Wanda one more time, so I'll adapt and bear it.

Fury: Fine, then problem solved. Wanda, you wanted to take a few days, that's it?

Wanda, shyly: Yes, sir, I would like to take a few days to really rest, I get it, what I did was wrong, I won't do it again.

Fury: I hope so, because next time it could not end that well.

Wanda: I know sir, and I understand it.

Fury: If you understand it, and you promise to stay calm and don't make any trouble, you can.

Wanda: Really?!

Fury: Yes, take a few days, a week, two, rest, play beach-volley, read books, watch movies, do what you want, but for God Sake, please don't make any trouble.

Wanda: I won't sir, thank you very much!

Fury: Well, if you don't have any other question or request, that was all for me, have a good day girls.

He left the room, leaving the two women alone in the meeting room. The room was silent, the two friends looked at each other, and smiled softly. Wanda took Sam's hands in hers. The young woman came closer to the witch, and put her head on the Sokovian's shoulder. The brunette put her right hand on Sam's blond hair and started to play with it. Her left hand suddenly dangling in the void, Sam put it on Wanda's back and came closer again to hug her. The witch swallowed, and hugged her back. For the first time in months, she was hugging her friend at the compound, where they both live now. It felt so good. She really missed Sam, more than anyone, except Pietro, her brother, but he was dead and she had no way to bring him back, unlike Sam. She missed Clint and Natasha, but it wasn't the same, Clint retired to spend time with his family, and Natasha... she was distant since Sam left, since they fought, it was just awkward between the two women. But with Sam... ok, Sam wasn't really nice with her the last time they saw each other, but she just escaped from Hydra's basement, alone, after a month of captivity, thinking they would eventually come for her, but no one ever came. Of course she was pissed, of course she felt bad, of course she was angry against all of them, they failed her. She had been mean, but it was kinda deserved. Natasha... she just lost it, she was angry, and she behaved awfully with the French. And Wanda was mad against the spy for that. Wanda kissed Sam's forehead, and the young lady raised her head.

Wanda: Maybe we can leave this room now, the meeting is over...

Sam smiled, and nodded, and they left the room.

Wanda: I think I'm going to pack my bags and leave for a few days sweetie.

Sam: Sure, you deserve it Wand', take care of you.

Wanda: Take care of you too!

They split up, each one heading to her bedroom. Sam met Daisy on her way, and, happy to see her, gave her a huge smile.

Daisy: Sam! How are you? How was the mission?

Sam: I'm fine, and you? The mission went well, forgetting that I had to work with Romanoff...

She seemed kinda annoyed saying this, and winced at her name, like if only the idea of the Black Widow was enough to drive her mad.

Daisy: Aren't you tired of being angry against the same person over and over? I'm sure she feels bad about it, you two should talk...

Sam: I don't care, I don't wanna talk to her anymore.

Daisy: But why? Well, I mean, I know why you're mad at her, but why don't you talk with her? Ignoring your problems won't solve any of them.

Sam: I will talk to her someday probably, but not today, I don't feel ready for that. I'm still too pissed actually...

Daisy: Well, do what you want, I'm not your mom after all, you're old enough to handle your problems by yourself.

She left, sick of this situation, and Sam was alone in her bedroom.

[jq37]

The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 5

Through a Glass, Darkly

Welcome back to the Temple of the Earth Defiant where the girls and their magical horses (and one pony!) have found refuge from the strange, twisted, fae creatures that have been chasing them. The statue of Asha Hammerheart that Ost animated last episode is still alive and wrecking house on the remaining harpies and beasts that are foolish enough to keep fighting and the rest soon get the hint and flee. 

Ost does some healing (boosted by the ambient Hallow effect of the temple which gives everyone a short rest) and then, seeing the damage to the temple caused by erosion, starts using Mending to fix things up. Her friends help out too with Sam and Yelle being most effective--Sam by repairing water damage and Yelle by creating tree cover and other druid-y tricks. But of course, we can’t overlook Katja’s crucial addition of carving “A Horse is a Home” into one of the walls of this sacred temple. 

Anyway, the girls are nesting super hard, the horses are having their scrapbooking reviewing club (an insane thing that was established last episode) and then Sam asks a question. Did y’all mention something about a photo of me going viral? Everyone’s like yeah, but don’t worry, you looked super hot. That’s not the part Sam was worried about. What she’s worried about and what all the girls except Zelda don’t really seem to know is that Sam doesn’t really have a social media presence. So like, 180k and climbing views (as decided by a dice roll) isn’t really what she wants. She scrolls through the comments really quick and sees that they’re not awful but one person is like, “Hey that girl looks a lot like that character from that old show”. Which Sam doesn’t love. She says that she’s fine but also that, even without an Insight check, she’s obviously not. 

Sam kind of looks to Zelda to bail her out and Zelda is like, “Hey, I’m gonna delete this video.” The other girls follow suit, even though they don’t quite know what’s happening. When they have to split up to investigate, Sam has Zelda kind of bail her out again and they split up to go check a nest outside--Zelda waving off Danielle when she wants to go with. Ant and Yelle decide to check out a cache of some treasure they saw earlier and Ost and Katja stay with the horses to keep fixing the temple up. Penny initially goes with Ant and Yelle but rushes back to be with Ost and Kat when Ost discovers a hidden lock while she’s fixing a wall.

So, the girls are split up, let’s run all these scenes.

Antiope and Yelle

Ant and Yelle go see the pile of treasure (near the statue of dwarven paladin Yvonna) which they learn is like a “take a penny leave a penny” situation for weapons and items. They were left by adventures who were similarly chased here and you can take what you need as long as you leave something to help others. Like, “Oh no I only have an ice sword and I need flaming arrows.” It doesn’t have to be equivalent exchange, you just need to leave something useful.

In this space, Yelle feels a weird melancholy and like they’re within the watch of something vast and powerful. She tries to check for TK’s presence but rolls low. Antiope leaves her Kalvaxus killing shortsword and takes some really nice, white feather fledged arrows with mirror tips and an ax Kat wants as a present for her dad. Danielle takes a bandolier of potions (3 healing and 2 mystery I believe) and leaves a bunch of mushrooms. Some of them are psychedelic and Ant takes one because this is probably a good time to be high, right?

It’s not messing with her competence obviously though because she rolls a 25 on Primeval Awareness and gets a weird sense, like something is closing in on this place. And like something very powerful is bleeding, which combined with the chaos of the mountains might explain the weird harpies and the cat/dogs. But she’s high so she explains this is a very spacey, stoner way. Probably a good thing she’s with Yelle.

Sam and Zelda

Sam can fly and Zelda can basically walk vertically with her goat legs so they check out the nest. Well, ostensibly that’s what they’re doing. Really they’re just having a heart to heart. Sam thanks Zelda for saving her ass and apologizes profusely for being so short with her. Zelda gives her a huge mid-air hug and says it’s not a big deal because she knows Sam is just lashing out because she’s hurting but Sam says it’s not a good enough excuse and she’s truly sorry. It’s been her coping mechanism for so long but she doesn’t want to be that way. She tells Zelda that the Everpetals are divorcing and that she’s living alone and Zelda says that any one of the girls would be happy to have her stay with them. Sam further explains that this is a big part of the reason she’s been so broken up about the possibility of their group splitting up and Zelda immediately takes out her crystal and texts her “I’m in” in the thread, breaking Sam again. 

Since they’re in heart to heart mode, Sam tells her that she talked to her bio-mom and an agent and she’s not sure what to do. Zelda says that she’s gonna be spectacular no matter what she does and she doesn’t have to do any of them but it’s cool doors are opening for her but also Antiope and Penny are gonna be PISSED that she’s out here making side plans after she gave them so much shit for theirs. Lol, well it’s a nice moment in the meantime and we cut to…

Penny, Ost, and Katja 

While Penny is lockpicking (and also trying to teach one of the horses to lockpick because sure) Katja and Ost go talk to the statue of Asha Hammerheart. It seems to be animated with at least some level of her true consciousness from beyond the grave and that she can kind of woge into her statue when she wants, which is cool. She’s been there for like 250 years so that’s a lot of history to see. 

Ost is maybe the most polite we’ve ever seen her talking to Asha (at least to begin with lol) and they ask her about TK. Asha says she saw TK show up 12 years ago but she never left, at least not through the front door. And then about 2 years ago (right around when they were in the crystals) that’s when the harpy queen showed up. At first they were normal and then they started mutating. Also, recently, Korra (one of the other statues/heroes) saw a woman in the mountains--not TK. 

Ost then takes a page from the book of one St. Kristen Applebees and asks, “Hey. What’s the deal with our god? He never talks to us, does he just suck?” Asha--who has never talked to him even though she’s a martyred hero and literally in dwarf heaven makes some excuses for the guy but Katja scoffs at them. “If people wanna take care of you, they do.” Ost then straight up asks if Logran Soulforger is even real which sets Asha off but Ost isn’t mad AT her, she’s mad FOR her. You go and do all this cool shit to the point where you have this cool ass statue, you fully DIE for him and he doesn’t even say hi? With a 21 Persuasion check, Asha admits that yeah, she would have liked some recognition. She decides she’s gonna go do some talking to some people and leaves after getting Ost’s number but before they can ask more about the woman Korra saw (who they think is Charity). 

OK, that’s all the small group stuff! Everyone comes back as Penny finishes up with the lock and they go down into this room that’s full of polished, precious stones. This is probably where people who were upkeeping the temple stayed. While everyone else is going down, Sam feels some powerful magical pull--much like her episode 1 Lightning Lure--calling her from the top of the stairs so she goes back up. We’ll get back to her in a bit. 

Penny rolls a high check to clock what’s going on down here. First off, she finds flintlock bullets and airship uniform scraps which makes it seem like there was a battle here involving some airship guys from the Baronies. Which is not just the place of origin of Riz’s imaginary Romance Partner. It’s a cluster of nations known for high rates of monarchical turnover and renaissance style intrigue. I’m picturing just a nation of [REDACTED]s from Crown of Candy. 

With all of this stuff, Penny finds an emblem of a billionaire airship mogul named Lord Talcidimir Tallbreeze who is a friend of her dad’s. Yelle is immediately like FUCK billionaires which isn’t plot relevant but it’s nice to know she’s always on brand. 

Oh also, Penny just casually finds the Legendarium so that’s neat. 

To be safe, Ost casts Protection from Energy on Ant (who is the one who knows how to use it) and brings out her Spirit Guardian (who is a combo of her mom, nona, and Asha, with her dad’s rings). Ant checks it out and sees that there are currently no A, B, or C quests in all of Spyre. While Penny cross references the bylaws to see if there’s a way to get around this, Yelle does some druid BS that I still do not understand to use the crystals in the cave to jailbreak this super powerful magical Artifact so they can just have copies on their crystals. While that’s happening, let’s check on Sam. 

Sam goes back up the staircase where she sees Ending who doesn’t look menacing at all, just extremely sad. She’s looking out the mouth of the cave and, when she turns, Sam can see she’s crying blood. 

“What’s wrong?” asks Sam, the acid-tongued but good-hearted. “Can I help you?”

With a 25 Persuasion check to get her to talk, Ending apologizes for scaring her and her friends before. She didn’t mean to. She sometimes forgets that her very nature can be frightening and dangerous to others. She says that when she escaped, she tried to rejoin her sisters but found their mirrors shattered and them gone. Sam thought they escaped but that doesn’t make sense to Ending. If they had, why wouldn’t they have freed her as well?

Sam asks who her sisters were and we finally get true names for Ending and her sisters:

Chrona, Terra, Pyrria, Nira, Zefira, Anima, and herself, Talura (which is what I’ll be calling her now that we know). Talura is the baby, the youngest. Sam realizes she’s talking about the Eidolons and Talura seems surprised and a bit pleased that Sam recognizes them. 

Sam asks if she can hug her and Talura hugs her tightly in a very cold embrace that doesn’t hurt. Downstairs, she hears her friends (Penny specifically) freaking about about the lack of quests but she doesn’t break the hug. 

“My own sisters are struggling right now but I’m gonna stay with you because you don’t know where yours are. But maybe we can find them.”

Talura clocks that the way that Sam is being is her true nature, not the bitchiness she often uses as a shield. Then she starts to talk about her history. That she and her sisters were sealed away when the gods were done with them (Sam can relate to being used and set aside) and the only way out was death. Talura has been crying and looking for her sisters to no avail. Her tears of blood leaking seems to be what caused the monsters to mutate which is in line with what Yelle and Ant were sensing. 

Talura doesn’t think anything could have destroyed her sisters so she’s very confused. Sam offers Talura her Mirror of the Past because it almost knocked out Sam to get god-tier information but Talura presumably won’t have that problem. Talura offers her a boon in exchange for this great kindness but Sam says she doesn’t need any quid pro quo. “This is just because you’re hurting.”

Talura is supremely touched and still wants to do something for her new...friend? Sam accepts the title and says that what she needs is some help on her GED quest. Once she explains what she means, Talura again recognizes Aguefort and is like, Oh, you need a quest? I can totally help with that! As we learned earlier, these guys are kinda genie connected so it’s not super surprising when Talura very happily goes full your wish is my command.

Downstairs, a Class A quest suddenly appears in Spyre on the screen. 

Back upstairs, Talura says that it’s been too long since she got to grant a wish and seems really happy about it. Sam gives her the mirror so she can check what happened to her sisters but when she does, she totally flips out and gets super angry--not at Sam, just at whatever she’s looking at. She can hardly believe it. Sam tries to figure out what’s wrong but she just gets super big and then disappears into a puff of smoke, leaving Sam's mirror on the ground, covered in frost. 

Downstairs, the Class A quest expands across the entire globe and then the Legendarium cracks. Ost’s spirit guardian disappears because of alarm bells ringing in the afterlife. And the girls learn that a Class A quest is a quest that affects the whole MULTIVERSE. Yikes!

So anyway, they girls go upstairs to check on Sam (on a bear that Penny makes because sure) and they see that something clearly just happened with Sam. Yelle asks if she’s good and Sam is like yeahhhh I don’t think ANYONE is good right now. Sam seems like she’s about to cry and Antiope instantly forgets all the petty bullshit going on between them and rushes to make sure she’s not hurt. 

Sam gives the girls a rundown of what happened and Yelle concretely puts together what I said earlier about Talura’s tears messing with nature. 

Sam wants to check her mirror to see what Talura saw and Brennan says she can do it the safe way with risk of failure of the surefire way with risk of personal harm. She, of course, picks door 2 and rolls a 13 on her con save which means she rises into the air like Storm from X-Men, eyes wide, and then instantly passes out and goes into shock. Antiope is there to catch her as she does. 

Also, she looks SUPER hot while falling on a 31. Honestly, it’s a shame she doesn’t allow herself a social media presence. 

Anyway, we’ll get to what she sees in a bit. Yelle and Ant make sure she’s OK (she is, but the has to be knocked out for this or she won’t be able to handle it). 

Penny tells them what she knows about each Eidolon from her earlier research which is what element each goes with:

Chrona: Time (Related to astral and elemental planes) 

Terra: Earth

Pyrria: Fire

Nira: Water

Zefira: Air

Anima: Life

Talura: Death 

They also talk about TK never leaving via the front door and all this airship stuff being around. Maybe she left out the top of the mountain on an airship? Katja has the hookup with this Tal guy (she’s met him when she was younger) so they decide they need to check it out once Sam is good. 

The girls fix the Legendarium and Ost, when she goes to pray for her spells for the night, doesn’t pray to her usual god. She prays to Asha. And not only does she get her spells, she also gets a new one--Commune. 

And now let’s get to what Sam is seeing in her Vision Coma. 

She was told by Talura that the only way out of the mirrors given to them by the gods was death. And what Talura saw that drove her to do whatever multiverse threatening thing that she did was every one of her sisters walking out of their mirrors and choosing death. I will specifically highlight that the oldest sister leaves almost immediately with a small, “Oh,” of realization and Anima, the closest sister to her seems terrified before coming to a joyful realization and leaving.

And that’s the end of the episode! Join us next week when apparently there is talk of a masquerade ball?????? Brennan, you shouldn’t have!   

Superlatives 

Sam: Most Likely to Accidently Snag a Brand Deal

Did you guys ever read the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche? Where Psyche was born so hot that it was basically a curse and she was miserable because she was so hot that Aphrodite hated her? That’s Sam. She is incapable of almost dying in a non-aesthetic way. It’s like a Pantene commercial every time. This is my favorite running gag.

Random Thoughts

Man, I have so many feelings about Sam. She’s such a BITCH in so many ways but it’s so obvious that she has a good heart. Every time she has an opportunity to be nice with no gain--helping Lola find her dog, magically turning the pages for the horses during book club, fully refusing a boon from Talura--she does. And I’m glad she gave Zelda such a sincere apology and didn’t let the extenuating circumstances absolve her because she said some pretty uncalled for things. But at her core she’s so kind and I want only good things for her. 

Also those of you who know me from my FH recaps know I’m a messy bitch for sister stuff so Talura and Sam both referring to the other maidens as her sister had me dead. You can tell when something in this show is f’ing me up when I just start directly quoting instead of paraphrasing. 

Katja being richer than Helio but having no idea what any of the brands Ost is mentioning are is peak comedy.  

As is Ant’s response to the take and penny leave a penny translation from Ost, “No, Penny didn’t come with us.”

Ost: I get service in the afterlife.

You could really tell which of the players watched Sophomore Year because the Baronies came up and all of them went into fight or flight immediately. 

Very Elsa vibes from Sam during the top of the scene with Talura. (Sam is, of course, a better sister but we simply do not have time to get into my feelings on Frozen 2 right now).

I was wondering why this season was called just “The Seven” when it dropped initially. Like, was it snappier? Did they not want to use the word “maiden”? But they still call themselves the Seven Maidens in the show so it’s probably not that. Now I’m wondering if it’s just to parallel the 7 of them w/ the 7 Eidolons. 

So it seems clear based on the reactions of the first and sixth sisters that they didn’t just “go gently into that good night” as Ant would say and ditch Talura. It seems like they figured something out. Also Brennan isn’t really a “and then they all died, the end” kind of DM, you know? Credit to my friend @camwritery for getting here before I did but the gods said the only way out was death and she is death so you know? Those def seem like puzzle pieces that go together. 

The only crit rolled this episode is a 1 by Penny which she gets to reroll as a halfling. 

[sanchoyo]

danny phantom season 2, episode 17-20 thoughts! finishing up season two! the finale is the THIRD 2-PARTER OF SEASON 2. that's so many! I wonder how many season 3 will have?

see prev episode thoughts in this tag <3

-UERGH WHY DOES VLAD HAVE AN AI WITH MADDIE'S FACE ON IT. SOOO CREEPY. AND MORE 'CREATIONS' waiiiit. vlad is Dr. Frankenstein! (despite his ghost design obviously referencing vampires) HE HAS 'CREATIONS' HE MAKES THEN WONT TAKE REAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR!!! this bitch.

-danny was late and his friends immediately start going off about how hes inconsiderate, and has been treating them like sidekicks??? he just overslept, my god. chill. even if he has, be nicer about talking about it with him?? he really can't help that he sometimes has to chase the ghosts, or has a secret identity to protect...

-'what kind of ghost haunts a miniature golf course' umm. me as a ghost. next question

-imagine going home and theres a tiny child on your bed claiming to be your cousin. with as many cousins I have, I would probably believe her. but the 'ran away from home' BIT....SHES 12?? SHES SO TINY. I hate that they have her belly out in her ghost form, but I like how her colors are asymmetrical. something about her design...maybe the proportions?? are weird to me...anyway danny was good to feed her, but he shouldve taken her to his parents FIRST. or, tbh, probably jazz. (JAZZ DIDNT EVEN GET TO MEET HER!!! NOOO. I mean she said she'll be BACK BUT STILL)

-ANYWAY. shes voiced by AnnaSophia Robb, the girl who was in because of winn dixie, played as violet from charlie and the chocolate factory, and was the girl from bridge to terrabithia. (the movie that made me cry hysterically when I was 12 and I never watched it again because it Broke Me!) thats super cool.

-vlad sucks: the episode, basically. what's new!! I love how he's like, I'm Not A Villain. *immediately cuts to him torturing danny to make him transform, to get mid-transformation DNA, to perfect a Clone.* *immediately shows that he doesnt give a shit about his new daughter Dani and just wants a ''more perfect clone'' and will put her in danger to get that. will let her DIE to get that*

-Dani is danny's clone and is a girl? transgenderism....one of them has to be trans. or they both are.

-dani just. leaving at the end. WHAT? SHES 12. DONT JUST. NO!!! SHE WAS PROBABLY JUST BORN, A MONTH AGO AT MOST, RIGHT?? SHE NEEDS...SOMEWHERE TO LIVE. MONEY? FOOD?? A FAMILY?? AN EDUCATION???! WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S LEAVING!!! OKAY BYE I GUESS!!! D: concern!!!

-the next ep opens with skulker chasing a ghost down. ...does skulker count as a ghost hunter in the way valerie and danny do? I mean, sure, he hunts the good guys too, but he. he hunts ghosts...also, we haven't seen his Real Form since his debut episode! tiny...

-the guys in white are back! ngl, I assumed they were a gag for that one episode. you're telling me they might actually be a threat? ok.

-valerie in her lil nasty burger uniform looks so cute!! glad shes not in that mascot uniform this time. I guess she stopped hiding that she's working there now?

-gregor having white hair, dressed in black and white...and green eyes...sam has a Type, I guess.

-danny being unnecessarily hostile about gregor. danny!!! hes been nice so far. he looks a little...tall to be 14, but. danny doesnt know anything about him! (he does Suspect, but...you cant just spy on people and be rude to them from a hunch.) also, gregor kissed her, and when she freaked out, he was like 'oh no!! sorry, we can take it slow! I understand!' which was NICE. I hate jealousy plots still tho.

-altho. umm. tucker, being concerned about danny spying on them??? SAM AND YOU WERE SPYING ON DANNY AND VALERIE A FEW EPISODES AGO!!!!! im not saying its RIGHT, but dont be a hypocrite!!! AND THEN SAM BEING MAD ABOUT IT, TOO.

-DANNY IS A 7 ON THE SCALE OF ECTOPLASMIC POWER!!! out of 10? so I want to know where the other ghosts rank...I mean it's a list from the guys in white, so, it may not even be accurate, like, they havent seen ALL of his powers, have they?

-Lancer being like 'im not cooperating with the FEDS' until they said they could access his tax records. they already did that joke with jack, but like, its still funny. kings of tax evasion.

-tucker's aggressive third-wheeling. but gregor being super into it. gregor/tucker is the real ship here. then gregor kissing danny on both cheeks after hugging him. bi poly king gregor. (he does turn out to be a liar with a phoney accent. unsurprising, BUT THE CONCEPT OF HIM BEING GENUINE AND THEM ALL DATING IS FUN)

-THE...GUYS IN WHITE THINKING GREGOR IS DANNY PHANTOM. LMAOOO. GET HIS ASS. or,, Elliot. lmfao

-sam saying tucker is part of the package because theyre friends was super sweet <3 but also 'part of the package'...polyships are obviously the solution to these dumb jealousy/love triangle plots.

-danny crashed a whole plane. the collateral damage...

-is he....

-you know....

.... (ITS NOT GAY IF YOU'RE DOING IT TO PRETEND TO BE SOMEONE YOU'RE NOT, AND LIE TO A GIRL. RIGHT? he was getting a little too into pretending to enjoy tucker's company, and the above...c'mon, guy.)

-lmao, freakshow is in actual prison. I didn't expect a follow up, or for him to show back up! in the finale of this season, too!

-THE SICK TATTOO GHOST IS NAMED LYDIA!!! more Lore On her. freakshow seemed genuinely concerned about her. also, is she mute? I don't think she talked the first time we saw her, either. and we didn't know freakshow 'envied' ghosts, either, the first time, we just knew he was controlling them. interesting!

-...they literally stole the infinity gauntlet from marvel and called it the reality gauntlet. is that legal. what the fuck. even with the gems in the lil slots, having different powers...they had freakshow in jail, but didnt check his pockets??! hes just still in his lil outfit??? what kind of ...oh, its in amity park. yeah, all of the adults are idiots, okay, sure.

-'freakshow!' 'in the anemic flesh!' dude take some iron pills then. also, sure, the red eyes could be contacts for his aesthetic, but the whites of his eyes are yellow! does he have jaundice?! he severely needs more...like, every kind of vitamin. (this is what im worried about as freakshow attacks danny with giant robots)

-again, goth circus is a sick theme, and I love his goth train.

-oh FUCK every single person saw danny transform. on a stage. including his parents via TV. oh god. the guys in white and immediately like 'youre coming in for experiments!' SCARY. at least the crowd is willing to help him to escape...perks of now being a local celeb! even the kids at school are accepting :) this is what, the third time his family has found out? its always been an alt timeline tho. and danny fully intending to just rewrite things again instead of...I dunno, trying to roll with it this time? hes really worried his family won't accept him, huh...

-'maybe our son IS THE GHOST BOY, but its not as if our family's ghostly activities have EVER PUT YOUR FAMILIES IN DANGER' maddie. mmmmmmmmmmmm. okay.

-danny 100% prepared to run away from home because of this :( oh :( and saying his parents are 'looking for him, or a scalpel to dissect him with' ouch...

-THE GUYS IN WHITE TRYING TO ARREST A 14 YEAR OLD. fuck da feds.

-side note (another one about voice actors...) freakshow's voice actor, Jon Cryer, was lex luthor in pretty much every DC tv show, which is why I recognized his voice, because my dad loves those shows so I've seen a good bit of them without seeking them out...)

-the old man saying 'hey, i still had minutes left!' and danny saying 'you gotta watch those roaming charges!' about danny destroying the people in the diner's phones so no one could report seeing him...would kids today understand these things. can you even BUY minutes anymore...I remember my first phone being a flip phone, and the fact I always had minutes when my sister ran out super fast, because I didnt have friends calling or texting me like she did...:/

-the fentons being genuinely like 'why didnt danny trust us and tell us this, we love him :(' and JAZZ LAYING INTO THEM WITH THE 'DISSECTION/MOLECULE BY MOLECULE' LINES. LITERALLLLY. they need to apologize

-technically, lydias stronger than you! -jazz lesbianism moments! when did you even learn her name!!! but also get freakshows ass. lydia is also cooler looking. looove her design sm still.

-jazz psychoanalyzing freakshow... (also, her also having ghost envy? au where jazz is a ghost!! id like to see it)

-im glad the kids still got to go to their respective vacation things, even if they cant really stick around and enjoy them much...

-furry: confirmed. (also tucker calling her hot. tucker is a furry confirmed)

-danny being mad someone at the comic con is selling comics of him without permission, lmfao. give him his royalties!

-freakshow > thanos because hes a drama clown and does use his gauntlet to be FLASHY AND DRAMATIC.

-jazz's 'USE PYSCOLOGY' to danny about freakshow LMAOO. AND THEN IT WORKING. but, oh, freakshow's ghost form sucks. I like him as a clown better tbh. good thing danny took away his ghost powers!

-his parents hugging him and saying theyre proud :"( and saying 'of course you lied to us, we never gave you a reason not to!' and saying they were in the wrong basically for always talking about hurting ghosts aaaa :""(

-then he WIPED THEIR MEMORIES AGAIN!!! FUCK. I can understand him wiping the goverments/student bodies' memories, but why his parents?? they were being accepting!! ARGHHH. season 3 couldve been them all trying to adjust to them knowing!

-I know, on a meta level the showrunners probably wanted to just reset things to the status quo of him having a secret identity. But. We've been doing that for (2) seasons, I'd love if season 3 could be like, his parents adjusting to this and trying way harder to learn more and accept it (and the shenanigans that could come from that) and for fun, if he didn't wipe the students memories, it could be him being popular for a while, then everyone slowly realizing, oh, he's still Danny. Like. he might have ghost powers but hes Just The Same Guy instead of putting him on a pedestal (and seeing them all try and help him hide it from the giw/people who don't know!!)

-fuck they didn't even explain WHY he wiped everyone except sam, tucker and jazz's memories. he just Did It right when his parents were saying they loved/accepted him!! and sam and tucker didnt question it at all!!! HELLO??? very annoyed about this turn of events.

-anyway. onto season 3! I know its shorter than the first two seasons, and is the last season... I might just do it in 2 bursts if I can... :3c depends on the episodes' content and how much I want to say about each!

[moonlightreal]

Fate ep 3, first half

They should’ve just changed everybody’s names.  I like Terra but she’s nothing like Flora... but Aisha and Musa are nothing like themselves either and Stella is the polar opposite.  Bloom is the only one with anything like her own personality and that’s ‘cause “destiny-ridden protagonist” is a pretty universal personality.

But let’s dive back into the show we do have!

When we left our heroine, Bloom had gone all white-eyed!  Looks like she’s having a vision of her own birth!  Hospital monitors and whatnot, then an old lady leans into view and says, “When the time comes, find me.”  Well that was proof you’re a destiny-ridden protagonist if ever I saw it!

So it’s still evening of day 3.  Counting days is important.

Aisha asks Bloom what happened and Bloom says, ‘I think I just saw the fairy that left me in the human world.”

Opening sequence!

On the way to class, with backpacks and books.  Aisha is wearing a very acceptable teal snakeskin-print outfit.  Bloom’s in a red shirt. Bloom stops to look at the alumni photos on the walls, trying to recognize the fairy from her vision.  Aisha is unimpressed with this plan, which I think is pretty sensible.  The most powerful fairies come through Alfea and this fairy was powerful enough to easter-egg a memory in Bloom’s head for sixteen years.  Bloom of course hopes this fairy can lead her to her birth parents.  Aisha just doesn’t want Bloom to get her hopes up.  Clearly aisha does not recognize the signs of protagonistness.

Outside it’s cloudy and all the specialists are doing their martial arts stuff.  Silva’s looking remarkably healthy for someone who was extremely poisoned yesterday!  He corrects some students, and Sky and Riven put on a great show.  Props to the actors and choreography people!  Riven fights with two swords, and he dumps Sky on the mat at the end.

...nope, it’s been a week since the attack.  It is now day ten and the boys are worried about their teacher.  And so am I, if Burned One poison is always deadly how is Silva still up and about?  And after the way he described his father dying of it he seems the type to totally take his own way out.  I wonder if he’ll survive to the final battle in episode 6 and heroically sacrifice himself, that’d fit.

There’s Stella wearing pastel pink and a skirt the real Stella might almost put on.  And a sweater and scarf.  I wonder how much of the costume choices are just because it’s quite possibly really dang COLD in Ireland and they don’t want the cast to suffer.  They also could be trying for an otherworldly feel by having the clothes be unfashionable but that’s a very strange choice.

Stella has given no thought to poor Silva and thinks he’s fine, only “Are you training later or are we hanging out before the party?”  Sky also infodrops that Burned Ones are like vampires and if they kill the one that tagged him Silva will survive.

So either there’s two Burned Ones or Aisha didn’t kill the one she pinned to the tree.  I guess they didn’t mention to Dowling that they went out and pinned a Burned One to a tree.

Anyway Stella kisses Sky, who barely notices ‘cause he’s worried for his mentor’s life, and goes to class.  Riven starts guessing why Sky took up with Stella again and assumes it’s ‘cause Stella does kinky stuff.  Riven giggles like a twelve year old at the thought and Sky pushes him off the bench.  Then in a more mature moment Riven pretty much says ‘I'm there for you’ on the whole Silva thing.

I have this suspicion that we’re gonna find out Sky and Stella aren’t having sex, that Sky is trying to help Stella with her magic behind closed doors.  Sky’s vibe is so unseduced.

Classroom scene!  Potions, I’d guess by the flasks on the desks.  16 students at 8 desks in a very skinny room with Dowling at her desk at the end. The teaching is specific to each student though.  Terra blooms a dandelion.  Musa’s instruction is to focus on one thought.  Bloom has a little pile of twigs and is instructed to light one and keep the fire from spreading to the rest.  She says it’s impossible, but then manages.  Beatrix just has a little fizz of lightning.  She snarks Dowling a little and Bloom and Beatrix share a look.  Aisha lifts a sphere of water but when Dowling instructs her to separate drops, the whole thing falls splashing Aisha and Bloom.  It seems like she should be able to just un-wet them but I guess not.  Class over, Aisha heads off for a swim.  Beatrix senses weakness and smirks.

In the greenhouse Silva is getting treatment.  Poor guy’s got a great rotting crater in his back with black veins spreading from it.  Ouch!

Harvey goes out to get something and Terra’s outside waiting to ask how Silva’s doing.  Harvey lies and says he’s fine, and praises terra again for the brave rescue.  Terra catches on, ‘You can tell me. I’m not a little kid anymore.” but her dad doesn’t tell her, just kisses her hair and heads off on his errand.  T

Terra’s left looking at her reflection in the greenhouse glass.

Beatrix and Callan plot.  No luck getting through the barrier in Dowling’s secret passage.  They have this chat while walking in the gallery above the cafeteria in public.  Callan says they shouldn’t be seen together and Beatrix goes with, “everyone’ll just think you’re perving on me.” and calls Callan a pedo.  She shoves him off and twirls right to Riven, who in a charming-slash-weird display, chomps an apple then leans down so Beatrix can bite the apple still in his mouth.

Terra is as baffled by this as I am.  Dane describes Beatrix as a huge nerd who can recite the entire history of the Otherworld in between bong hits.  So bongs exist in fairyland, and also dowling does a really bad job at keeping her students off drugs.  Maybe she needs more than 3 staff members.

Anyway Riven invited Dane to the party and Terra is shocked and clearly territorial/protective over Dane.  

At their table Musa and Bloom are talking about Aisha’s failure in class.  Turns out Bloom’s parents call her at two in the morning because that’s a sensible hour Switzerland time and it wakes the whole dorm up!

Terra comes over to incoherently ask why Beatrix the history nerd is getting action while she can’t keep Dane’s attention away from a jerk like Riven.  She doesn’t say that with words but that’s the real question.  

Off in the background Sam catches Musa’s eye and holds up snacks, inviting her to come share.  Musa picks cute boy over awkward conversation.

Terra deflates.  “I know why really.  ‘Cause she drinks and smokes and looks like her and I’m… sorry.  How are you?” and Terra turns the conversation to Bloom’s search for the old lady in her memory. Which leads to yearbooks to how Silva is to if Sky’s ok to Terra basically saying, “Sky is a great guy but Stella will straight up murder you if you look at him.” to Stella staring at them from another table.  Bloom says she’s just worried about Sky and Terra says, “Ok.” realizing Bloom does not grasp the gravity of the Stella murder situation.

Sky arrives in the greenhouse where Silva is putting his shirt on after another treatment.  They talk, Sky offers to take over some teaching so Silva can rest.  The army is tracking the Burned One but Silva is running out of time.  He starts the ‘my final wishes’ thing but Sky is more interested in how to fix things.  But for soldiers, final wishes are as fixed as things can get.  Sky says, “I already lost one father.” so Andreas is indeed dead.

Cut to Stella hangin’ with the minor fairies!  they’re gossiping about the soldiers!  “hot Marco” is leading them, they’ll get that Burned One no problem.  Stella looks relieved.  She’s not actually heartless.  

Cut to a sign that says “18 Winx Suite’ there it is, the word.

Bloom looks through yearbooks.  Aisha tries to waterbend with no luck.  So little luck that she asks Bloom how the search is going.

We see a page of yearbook with names including “Ranger Colly” “Sparta West ‘Red’”  “Devon Waller”  Maybe the one nicknamed ‘Red’ is Bloom’s mom?  Also a little sad that they didn’t stick in the names of a few of the minor fairies, it would’ve been such a tiny thing so few fans would’ve caught it, but it would have cost them nothing.

Bloom has an idea!  She had the vision after using lots of magic, so maybe if she goes to the stone circle and draws on lots of magic again she’ll get back in touch!  

Aisha knows a bad idea when she hears one.

They are interrupted by Terra calling from the bathroom, she tried to do a cat eye and failed in floods of eyeliner.  Bloom and Aisha rescue her and Musa comes into this strange scene as Terra tells them, “I need full suite support, we’re gonna go show everyone we’re cool and fun...” the girls crowd in front of the mirror and smile.

This is exactly the kind of scene where the real Stella could have shone, sweeping in to make Terra look amazing... but the Stella we have is in Sky and Riven’s room doing her makeup because sharing the mirror with firsties is a nightmare, as Riven pours booze into his flask in preparation for the same bullying he pulled on Dane at the last party.

Wait, a party every ten days?  That is the most Winx Club thing about this show!  Hah!

Also the “there’s not enough staff to keep the students from abusing substances” is gonna be the new “the Winx band needs security guards” innit.  Sigh.

Riven brings the truth bomb: “If everyone around you is a nightmare, it’s not them.”

Stella wants a sip, but Sky isn’t drinking.  Stella thinks she knows why, she turns to reassure him, “Marco is on the Burned One.  As in, badass Marco?  Strongest fairy in a decade?”  But Sky’s still not drinking.  I get such a vibe that Sky is getting his life straight, growing beyond Stella while she remains a bundle of needs and fears.  Of course Bloom is ALSO a bundle of needs and fears so I’m not sure how that’ll work out.

We go to Badass Marco himself, out on rolling green fields.  He and his team are reporting in by radio: they’ve tracked the Burned one up to a river, which may stop it.  Burned Ones have difficulties with large bodies of water.  They should have killed it by morning.  Back at Alfea Dowling says they may not have ‘til morning.  She and Silva, whose eyes are white-ing over but still seems himself, are tracking progress on a map.  Marco and his team move out.  I want to know more about this battalion, Marco’s second is a woman with sort hair who seems to be named Laura, Harvey says her name as he comes to join the other two.  They’re in the cafeteria under the arches. Harvey pours shots all ‘round.  They wish they could be out in the action, not babysitting while their former students face danger. Marco and Laura are the best of the best but have never faced a Burned One.

Then Harvey mentions “the specialists’ annual debauched kegger.”

Silva: “I imagine they think we don’t know.”

Dowling: “I imagine they think you didn’t start it.”

Ok, I adore these three. Mixed feelings about the teenagers with familiar names but all three of the adults seem such solid characters.

...and with that revelation, I need a break from reviewing.  Got a sewing experiment to take apart and put back together, so we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see if Badass Marco and his team survive or if the first-year students have to take over!

[dotthings]

Heavily cluttered, as many Bucklemming eps are, but worth the trip. There was a lot of goodness in 15.08 and there were two moments where I shrieked out loud.

My two out loud-shriek moments, let’s get that out of the way: 

Queen Rowena. Caaaaalled it.

Dean and Cas are going back??? To???? Purgatory???? Together?????? And Bobo???? Is???? Writing the episode???????????? *SHRIEKING AND FLAILING*

Okay more orderly and sedate now. Eileen is so damn fierce. She’s a very physical fighter, she’s smart but seems to use a blunt fighting skill. She can punch HARD. I love watching that so so much. I would enjoy female characters on SPN like this regardless, but the fact that this is a hero character with a disability and it’s never a big deal is deeply refreshing and SPN did something really really right bringing her back, amen.

Protective Sam shows up and Eileen is happy to see him but literally pushes him aside so she can make the kill. She doesn’t need his protection, but she also values him as a hunting partner as the ep shows. Also they’re trying to build a relationship here. Eileen seems used to hunting solo and Sam wants to offer backup, and he got worried. 

So the plan is to lock up Chuck like Chuck locked up Amara. The sweet irony of this delights me. He tried to shut away the divine feminine rather than actually stepping up to deal with his sister as, well, a person (well, a divine deity, but still, a being with feelings and thoughts and complexities). Chuck, the arrogant and narcissistic toxic masculinity God, maybe to be locked up now instead as his hubris and his lack of empathy and his petulance is exposed. What if Amara was the more competent deity all along? 

There is no way Dean doesn’t know what an Achilles’ heel is. The random WTF of this is so much it’s not even angering it’s just so bizarre. LOL what even. Look I am really enjoying S15 but I hope the butterfly net tightens on stopping this kind of thing because honestly. I’ll just pretend that scene isn’t there. Luckily I enjoyed the episode overall a lot.

Team Free Will in research mode together in the bunker just really makes me happy. Cas is where he belongs.

Donatello!Chuck threatening Jody, Donna, Eileen, “pretty much everyone on your speed dial” as a deterrent to Sam and Dean is bearing out again my impressions of how Chuck views these characters. I’m still not 100% sure what he thinks of Cas who is right in the room but Chuck doesn’t seem to acknowledge him, except as some sort of right arm to Sam and Dean, as I’ve said in other posts, I think Chuck regards him as a nuisance now, and a deterrent to his miserable endings, and a pawn. Just like Donna, Jody, and Eileen, to him, they’re just pawns. They’re all people Sam and Dean care about, and Chuck will use them to keep his two favorites in line.

See what I did there?

Yeah. Chuck doesn’t care about the characters as people. Everyone except Sam and Dean are expendable and tools to be used so he can control Sam and Dean and that’s it. He’ll destroy them with a snap of his fingers and won’t care. Look at that. Familiar attitude, isn’t it. How interesting.

“If you want to stay here, stay here.” Dean’s gone back to not!listening to Cas I see. While Cas is Dean-avoidant and trying not to look at him throughout the episode. But both of them are thawing just a little.

Like when Cas heals Dean’s cut palm and the way it’s staged looks like he’s going to take Dean’s hand to do it which I don’t think is an accident. That moment was meant to be soft.  Dean didn’t ask. Cas offered. And Dean didn’t jerk his hand away or say no. Then there’s the fact that Cas is going to go with Sam and Dean into Hell despite all his misgivings about Michael and this entire plan. 

Team Free Will, getting all researchy together, and then getting all BAMFY together with their angel blades going into Hell.

We didn’t get any kind of nod back to Dean and Cas’s last visit together to Hell and that’s the second time they have been back to Hell (well the last time was some sort of Hell ante-room, the cage was brought up iirc) and SPN failed to nod to it, WHY AM I CONTINUALLY DENIED THIS.

“Hello, boys.” There it is. My actual shriek of delight. I hope it didn’t alarm the neighbors.

“I took it.”  Yes you did, my red-headed goddess queen of the underworld. You sure did. GET IT ROWENA. Rowena won the game of thrones. Boom.

She’s a little flirty with Sam, still has a soft spot for him I think. 

And then starts playing marriage counselor for Dean and Cas. “What am I picking up with you two? A wee tiff?....So fix it.” Someone called this, I’m fairly certain, that if Rowena saw Dean and Cas again during their divorce she’d size that situation up and down and comment on it. FIX IT. So say we all.

“Family sucks.” Jake Abel did such a fantastic job in this. tbh I didn’t give much thought to Adam all these years, it seemed like SPN was never going back there. I liked Jake’s performances in S5, but it just seemed like a story that was over. But Jake Abel, man. He comes back after all this time and owns the dual roles and made me care. With a performance that was alternately fearsome and vulnerable. 

“That’s adorable.” Dean is SO happy about Sam and Eileen, he looked so soft, and still a bit not okay because his chosen other half is barely looking at him, but mostly Dean’s rooting for Sam to have some happiness. “If it was to work, she gets it, she gets us, she gets the life.” It’s a retreated on Sam’s speech back during “Baby” about someone...something...who understands the life. And Sam has found that with Eileen.

Meanwhile Cas is right there, with Dean, with this great big chasm still open between them but...he’s there. And all the arrows point towards him for Dean. 

Dean and Cas are being magnets again. Not like in S14 where every time there is a crisis they stand very close together and are drawn together, now they’re like magnets that are trying not to feel the pull but they cannot escape each other’s pull nor do they really want to, but they can’t quite figure out how to cross the distance. 

There’s more than one scene where Dean or Cas is out of focus and the other in focus, as if to emphasize how they’re both there but not in phase with each other. Not yet.

I so enjoyed the Cas and Michael stuff. Cas’s prayer to Michael, Michael’s mad on for Cas. “Oh, I didn’t come to beg.” And there’s the ruthless strategic angel.

There’s also something really...fitting about Sam and Dean and Cas all being the ones standing outside the ring of holy fire together to trap an archangel who they effectively hope to bring in from the cold, to their side, in a post S6 era of the show. 

“To paraphrase a friend you had an entire oak tree shoved up your ass.” I see Cas is still quoting Dean, having Dean as a compass point or a North star. Even if he can barely look at Dean right now.

Cas telling Michael his unimportance to God and keeping the upper hand is just...so satisfying. Cas has grown so much. I keep thinking about S5 Cas and how despite how powerful Cas was back then, radiating power in ways he doesn’t quite do the same way now, Cas always seemed so...smol next to the archangels. Punching above his weight class. But now he faces down Michael and tells Michael rawly how it is with their dad Chuck. And when Michael tries to choke him, he fights past it and goes into Michael’s mind to show him everything, to help him see the truth. Cas has grown so much, this felt a lot like a little brother constantly picked on leaves home, grows, and comes back to find big, big brother isn’t quite as big and intimidating as he remembers. 

Which in fact he isn’t, because Michael is capable of insight and change and feelings too. He’s not his father. Despite being the favorite. Despite clinging still to his hero-worship. But Cas worked past that with Chuck long ago.

When Eileen’s friend needs help on a hunt, and Eileen goes to Sam, Sam goes with her, no doubts. Tells Dean he’s going, as Dean recounts to Cas, and Dean seems cool with it. 

Sam and Eileen seem to be growing closer and closer, and while there is something tentative about Sam, he definitely is drawn to her and cares. That tentativeness is from past hurt and loss and maybe he’s scared to enter into this kind of relationship. But they’ve got their own magnetic pull together, they fit. 

Dean and Cas facing each other in that bunker kitchen, the lighting darker and colder than usual. They’re facing each other, and each shift in and out of camera focus, not looking at each other much. Cas can’t look at Dean at all in this scene, while Dean keeps sneaking glances at Cas. In other scenes, Cas does sneak looks at Dean. They are ridiculous and my heart hurts. The blocking here is them facing each other only not--they are a few feet off, so looking past each other.

Cas sitting at that table, hands folded, staring straight ahead and working very hard obviously to Not Look at Dean. 

Dean’s reaction on Cas reporting the words Michael said, “I want you dead, get out.” The things Dean has said to Cas are coming back to haunt him, coming from the words of their once mortal enemy, that’s gotta sting.

Both Dean and Cas have some work to do here, but Dean definitely is already very aware his own words went too far, and has been for a while. 

“God lied to me. I loved him.” Oh wow that hurt, I didn’t expect these feelings. 

A thing about Adam and Michael, both feeling so abandoned by their families, and losing everyone. They offered support to each other. They worked out a time-share in Adam’s body. We’ve seen genuine vessel and angel bonds form before (in Lily Sunder). There’s also a S7 episode by Ben Edlund about the bond between a human and the demon who possessed him. Not sure how healthy Adam and Michael are, but they seem weirdly functional, and don’t despise each other and I kind of have some feelings about Adam and Michael bonding the way they did in The Cage. Perhaps Michael shielded Adam from the worst of it. It’s how Adam is coherent after being down there for so long. Maybe Adam made Michael less lonely. Did I ASK for feelings about Adam and Michael, no I did nOT and yet here we are.

Then there’s Adam. It was interesting that scene where Sam acknowledges maybe they gave up too easily. Because Sam and Dean refuse to accept it when it’s each other they lose, and have gone way over the line to get the other one back. Here Sam is admitting that it shouldn’t be just for them. That Adam was worth saving. Even though they don’t know him well, he still didn’t deserve what happened (as Dean acknowledges at the end of the ep). And Sam and Dean never mentioning him again or giving him another thought apparently, all these seasons...well, that kind of made me assume that was that. Just because someone is blood, doesn’t make you family and they barely knew Adam. 

But if it’s someone who could potentially earn that? Someone basically good? And they just...forgot about him and left him to his torment in Hell? So this did need addressing. There’s not much time to develop a relationship with Adam and TFW this late in the game but there was a start here. 

Dean likewise offers his apology to Adam at the end. “You’re a good man. You didn’t deserve that.”

Right when I was thinking, so many of them don’t get what they deserve, they just keep getting Hell heaped on their heads, Adam says “Since when do we get what we deserve.”

There’s a subtle thing there where Adam looks at Cas, Cas very pointedly still tries to be not looking at Dean, and after Adam leaves Dean turns to Cas looking so...sorrowful for a moment. I keep saying, Dean and Cas deserve each other, and right now they can’t figure how to have each other. 

But Michael left them a strange gift. The Leviathan flower, to seal away Chuck, but the gift has a double meaning (unintentionally on Michael’s part). It’s not just the tool to shut away the villain, Michael opens a door to Purgatory and boom just like that, opens up a whole doorway on Dean and Cas’s story because of the emotional significance of Purgatory for them. What they had there. What happened there. The way that place broke loose some of their feelings. I’m not sure what’s going to happen now, if they both go, as the promo glimpses seem to suggest, does one return and the other gets trapped? Is Dean’s prayer to Cas going to be inside Purgatory, is Cas also still in Purgatory and they get separated? Is being thrown together back into that environment going to help them heal? Or will they be torn apart again but that provides another route to reconciliation?

[sunshinesunsethappiness]

Potential Elseworlds Elements

So in the recent TVLine Eric Wallace said that certain elements were planted in Elseworlds that will pay off in Crisis on Infinite Earths. So I watched the crossover again, trying to see what potential elements could carry over (this has some comic spoilers + discusses some announcements made about COIE,so also spoilery):

This one might be parts wishful thinking, lol. I’ve already talked about this earlier this year (x), but the way that they used the ‘Iris, you’re my lightning rod’ phrase in this crossover felt weird to me, because it didn’t make sense with the way we’ve seen Barry use it before. Barry only used it once before and it was not to convince Iris of anything.

So the question to me is, why shoehorn it in? Possibly they just wanted to mine some humor from it and disregarded the way they had set it up (this episode was I think written by Eric Wallace and Sam Chalsen)

But why use the term lightning rod in the first place? There are so many ways to add humor and Barry telling iris that story about when they were young was more than enough to get her to believe him.

And if they did want the set up and pay off with some term Barry tells Iris they didn’t need to use Lighting Rod. Because again it has never been used this way before so they themselves were making it a thing in the crossover and they could have used any other term for it.

So...perhaps they needed to add it in because they needed to introduce the concept to the crossover audience because it would come back in COIE.

Now technically this already had a payoff since it was set up and then used later in the episode, but if there is any time to use the lightning rod concept on the show/in the arrowverse, COIE would be the time. imho of course.

The writers during the episode also tweeted out a comic panel from Infinite Crisis where Wally appears in front of Linda before he disappears because he needs to keep running. 

I don’t remember where I saved the one the writers posted, but this was part of it:

Linda refuses to let him go alone however and she kisses him. And they all disappear (Wally, Linda and their twins). This doesn’t take place during COIE but Infinite crisis, but the concept of a speedster about to disappear because he needs to keep running sounds familiar.

They could have used the as long as I remember Iris moment, or one of the panels where Iris is called Barry’s Lightning Rod, but i think this was about the concept/situation rather than the characters. So not just the Lightning Rod thing, but also the situation in which those characters find themselves in. Which makes me thing this concept of a speedster disappearing was on their mind when implementing the lightning rod term.

It’s already been announced that Lois and Clark’s child will be making an appearance in the crossover, so this was clearly set up for that.

As for what role that child will be playing? idk.

In the comic the child of Lois and Lex from another Earth plays a pretty big role. He is sent away to save his live at the beginning of the comic and then ages at an accelerated rate.Perhaps this child could play that role,but probably not very likely they’d use accelerated aging in the TV version.

Now Iris is not talking about Barry actually disappearing here, but she’s talking about who Barry is not him actually disappearing, but it’s still interesting to have Iris ask Barry to come back to her in the setup to COIE

tbh there are things about this scene I still don’t fully understand. (I didn’t completely understand where Iris’  fear was coming from, or what ‘no matter what mask I wear I’ll always show you my true face’ really means, especially in response to what Iris said). Plus it didn’t really go anywhere either in the following episodes or later in the season. I’m not suggesting I think they’ll revisit this. I actually don’t, or perhaps I don’t want it/think they need to, I feel like that was wrapped up or at least moved on from. Especially since Barry himself made the don’t give into darkness speech in episode 3 of the crossover.

Supposedly one of the flash episodes dealt a bit with Barry + darkness and the rest of the convo was set up was for the rest of the season:

“There is an episode a little bit down the line where Barry deals a little bit with that,” Flash executive producer Todd Helbing told reporters at a press screening.

The exchange between Barry and Iris “just speaks to everything that they’ve experienced this year as parents for the first time, in that it really speaks to their relationship, how much they’re in love,” the EP explained. “Barry says, ‘Whatever mask I’m wearing, I’ll always reveal my true face.’ I just think it really speaks to who they are as a couple, and it sets up what they’re going to have to go through in the back half of our season.” (x)

but it’s a scene I’m keeping my eye on. Perhaps they just really wanted to add the line of Iris asking Barry to come back to her.

I saw someone say something like this somewhere, but it would be a sweet nod to all the previous crossovers if Oliver initiated a hug with Barry in COIE

When ‘evil superman’ is changing the world again when he gets his hand on the book again somewhere in the third episode, you see several changes to the way star labs looks. On one them is this

I may be misremembering, but I don’t think Star Labs usually has that shooting star logo? Looks a lot like the Legion of Super-Heroes logo. It could just be another easter egg, but who knows? It’s not that far fetched to think the Legion of Super-Heroes could show up, especially since they’re also in the COIE comic.

Perhaps just and Easter egg, but  apparently Edward Nigma is the name of the villain Riddler

Perhaps another Earth’s version of John Diggle  will make an appearance as Green Lantern?

The box says Crane, J. Apparently Jonathan Crane is the name of the villain Scarecrow. Perhaps just an easter egg?

[imaginetonyandbucky]

Good Intentions: Season 3 Finale (Ep 6 of 6)

The road to hell may be paved with good intentions, but the way out is paved with good deeds. Also on AO3.  ~ Dracusfyre

When they landed on Earth, it was just Steve and Tony; Sam and Bucky's soul was nowhere to be seen. Steve must have seen Tony looking around for them, because as he made his way towards the road Tony could just barely see through the trees he said, "Sam is going to meet us.  There's a process to bringing a soul out of Hell."  Tony raised his eyebrows as he followed without comment, because to be fair, he had always been under the impression that it was a one way street.  Once they got to the street they saw a woman leaning against a car a few meters away.

"Hey, Steve," the woman said with a small smile, squeezing him on the shoulder as Steve leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.

“I recognize you,” Tony said to the woman behind the wheel as he climbed into the back of the car.  “From that first night with Bucky.”

“Yeah, I was pretty shocked when I found out Bucky’s bullshit summoning spell actually worked,” the woman said as Steve climbed into the front seat and she threw the car back into drive.  “I’m Natasha, by the way, and I’ve been playing Q to this ragtag band of misfits.  I’m from the Men of Letters.”

“Men of Letters, huh?”  Tony took a minute to digest that.  “You’re the one who gave him the summoning spell?”

Natasha rolled her eyes as the dirt road became a two lane back road and she was able to accelerate.  “I watched him do it and I thought no way in hell it would work.  It shouldn’t have worked.”

“Well, it didn’t really work.  I was just curious.”

Natasha glanced at him in the review mirror, the look in her eyes unreadable. “You were curious?”

Tony shrugged, wondering why she was looking at him like that. “Yeah. Also, have you seen the man?” he said, ignoring the strangled noise Steve made in the front seat. “I may be dead, but I’m not…dead dead.”    

beware the read more

“Alright, well, when I write the official report on this, I’m going to make sure I note that the factor that led to this particular apocalypse being averted was one curious, horny demon,” Natasha said dryly, and turned on the radio. Tony considered asking more about what she meant by that but decided he might not want to think about the answer just yet so he just lay down and closed his eyes, letting the rhythms of the road soothe him into the meditative state that passed for sleep among demons.

The movement of the car on gravel as it slowed to a stop woke Tony some time later and he sat up and looked out the window at where Natasha had taken them, pretty damn ready to find out what happened with Bucky and how they planned to protect him from Azazel.  Protect all of them from Azazel, really, because when he saw that his precious had been stolen he was going to be one angry archdemon. “So, not to be that guy or anything, but why am I here?” Tony said as they climbed out of the car. “Wherever here is?”  He craned his neck up at the blocky, industrial building. It looked like an old power station, with two chimneys looming into the grey sky and the stained exterior with its barred, prison-looking windows.

“This is the Men of Letters headquarters for the Midwestern states,” Natasha explained as they came around to the far side of the building, where a couple of steps led down to a wide metal door.  “And one reason why you are here is because Steve refused to leave you behind.” She gave him a look as she approached the keypad set into the door, and Tony backed up to give her some privacy.

“But I wasn’t the one being held against my will,” Tony pointed out.

“Well, there were a couple of reasons why I insisted on it,” Steve said as Natasha swung the heavy metal door open to reveal a small elevator.  He gestured for Tony to step inside and followed him.  Natasha closed the old fashioned metal door and the grating behind it and pushed a button, and the elevator started to move with surprising silence, given its age.  “Some of those reasons had to do with Bucky.  We knew that he made a deal with you, because he left us a note.”  The look on Steve’s face said that he was going to have some Words with Bucky about whatever was in that note.  The elevator came to a stop, and when Natasha opened the grating again Tony found himself unable to leave.

“Devil’s trap?” Tony asked, not sure why he was surprised.

"The other reason is that I want to know just how much you had to do with Azazel's plot," Steve said, voice hard.  He rested a hand on the demon-killing knife strapped to his thigh.  

"So keeping your potential enemy close, then?"

“Yeah.  Just while we talk to Bucky and figure everything out," Natasha said and pulled a pair of handcuffs out of her coat pocket. As they dangled from her finger, Tony could see the runes etched on them. "You understand.”

“Yeah, fine,” Tony said with resignation and held out his hands for her to put them on his wrists. “I mean, you pretty much burned my bridges back in Hell by bringing me out, so. I hope you’re ok with me hanging out here until infinity.”

They led Tony down a wrought iron spiral staircase to hang out in the library while they had their powwow, and Tony happily wandered through the books lining the walls.  They had one whole bookshelf devoted to the engineering principles of magical inventions so Tony sat down on floor and forgot himself until he heard someone say his name.“Over here,” he called out absently, and looked up to see Bucky.  Suddenly he was glad he was already sitting down because the overwhelming wave of relief made him sag against the wall. Bucky looked great.  There was no angel superimposed over his form, which is what Tony'd been more than half afraid of, nor was there any sign of the time he spent in Hell. It was as if the past few months had never happened. "Hey, Bucky," Tony managed. "What's up?"

"Hey, Tony," Bucky said, running a hand over the back of his neck as he took a few hesitant steps closer.  When he saw the cuffs on Tony's wrists he made a face and knelt down at Tony's side.  "I'm so sorry, Tony, this is all my fault.  Are you ok?"

Tony shrugged, still running his eyes over the miracle that was Bucky alive and well.  "It's fine, no big deal.  How are you?"

"Um..." Bucky sat next to him on the floor and gestured towards the rest of the bunker.  "I feel like there's a lot of catching up to do? But otherwise, I feel great."  He smiled crookedly.  "From what I understand, I'm a brand new man."

"Yeah? I don't know, they haven't told me much.  I think they're still worried that I'm playing for the other team," he said, holding up his wrists.

"Well, about that." Bucky said slowly, and he leaned over until their shoulders were brushing.  He ran the back of his fingers shyly across the back of Tony's hand.  "That's another thing they wanted me to talk to you about."  When Tony met his eyes questioningly he said, "how would you like another chance at being human?"

                                                           ***

Had Tony known what the ritual was going to be like, he probably would have turned it down and just lived in the Men of Letters bunker for eternity.  If he'd ever felt this level of pain he had blacked it out; each injection of consecrated blood burned like holy water, like acid, through his veins and down to the very core of him.  By the third dose, he wasn’t ashamed to say that he begged for them to stop; by the fifth, Bucky’s resolve was gone, and Natasha had been forced to put him in a wrist lock and march him out the door.  She watched him, her brown eyes sympathetic, as he burned and sweated and cursed through the sixth dose, and after that the pain seemed to ebb.  By the last one, he barely felt the sting of the needle, he was so exhausted; he heard someone murmuring and felt the ropes around his wrists and ankles loosening and that was the last thing he knew before he gratefully passed out.

When he came to, gingerly testing his limbs for any searing pain, Bucky looked up from his book.  “Hey, Tony.  How are you feeling?”

Tony took a deep breath, feeling his lungs expand and his heart pump, his stomach growl and his head ache.  Things he hadn't felt in ages.

It was amazing.  He turned his head and smiled at Bucky.  “Hungry. Thirsty.”  

"C'mon," Bucky said and stood, holding his hand out to Tony.  "Let's take care of that and see what other human things you feel up to doing."

"Sounds good," Tony said as he let Bucky pull him to his feet.  "I mean, now that I've gone one again, I'd totally sell my soul for a sandwich and a good lay, in that order."

[chrisodonline]

Spec and Motifs/Themes for S9

I’m about to write something that should probably be multiple posts, but, alas, you’ll get one giant tome of my ramblings that will all be proven wrong in a little over 24 hours.

I am currently powered by punchiness that follows a very long week, low sleep levels, leftover rotisserie chicken that I almost ate with a spoon instead of a fork, a couple Tootsie Pops in G Callen’s honor, and some chocolate milk. I did promise (okay, 2 weeks ago) @sspaz1000 and @mashmaiden speculation. (They’ll regret asking!)  

Before I start on my theories, a few things of note:

Thank you to those who have listened to my ramblings and talked with me this season. Some of those talks have actually led to thoughts behind the cut.  To those who tolerated me: @aprylynn, @chicgeekgirl89, @raccoonsmate4life, @s-sdensi, and @ishiptoomanypeopleontv.  Always ever patient and so sweet. You guys rock!   These people are also whom you should probably see for Densi spec and reflection, which I won’t do too much of -- though, I could. I’ll touch on it briefly, but I’m not an expert.

Beneath the cut you’ll find a few different theories, reflections on motifs/themes from S9, and why I still cite Mr. Bartels as the King of Foreshadowing. Plus, lots of words. I might cut myself off on some of these, as feel free to ask for elaboration!

A quick look at the season, and you’ll see some repeated themes and motifs.  You can say that about past seasons, and some have played bigger roles over the years, e.g. duplicity, identity issues, etc. 

This year has been about consequences: the team merits a firmer hand, Sam lost his wife, the job’s dangerous and makes your loved ones worry (see: Deeks), and we see a repeat of things come back to bite people later on -- which adds some depth to dragging some of the baddies’ plots out across the season and with 2 eps or more.  Hetty’s whole arcs deal with consequences: her team left someone behind, and she feels responsible.  Many veteran agents and figures suffer from Agent Orange. Keane’s back, but what life does he come back to? Etc.  Plus, see: Kensi/Deeks.  Deeks almost appears to be stalling the wedding and trying to hide his hesitation with disagreements and secret wedding venue scouting since Kensi was catching on to the avoidance. Like I said, though, I won’t talk about them too much.

With Hetty and the new Boss, one could easily argue that the ep ends with the team in serious peril.  We’ll know they’ll make it out, but the question is how would they survive such a pickle (much like in the “Deep Trouble” episodes - Shane Brennan even conceded in an interview we all knew Callen and Sam would survive, the question was always “How?”).  The team, nay, the Team, nay, THE TEAM (TM) has been at the center of the season even when separate.  Their future as a TEAM(TM) has been questioned/discussed.  It would make sense something narratively happened, and they already go in at odds.  Does this mean the whole TEAM is in trouble? Or do they accidentally or on purpose out of necessity, have to leave someone behind, perhaps assuming they’re dead, e.g. Keane? Having to get an injured member out of a foreign country off the books? Eep. (Speaking of TEAM, man, am I worried about Hidoko. Anyone else?)

So, that’s one set of theories.  The other I’ve had for a while, and it’s been building up with some of the eps, namely Bartels’, and the portrayal of certain dynamics plus other plots.  With BTS stuff and now Gemmill’s interview, it seems the theories are solid, but we’ll see. They could be a misdirect.

Narrative-wise, it would make a lot of sense that something very serious happens to Callen:

His relationship with Mosley has been soooooo contentious, up until they started to get along and connect by relating to each other.  While repetitive, they may have wanted to really amp it up -- and they did so by making either one of them, at any time, amped up past 10 -- to contrast the finale and latter half of the season. At times, it seemed like caricatures of either of them to keep them at ends.  He’s the one who explicitly promised to get the kid back, and when it comes to kids, we know G goes all in -- and then some. 

Remember how I mentioned Bartels? Well, I’ve talked ad nauseum (I’m sorry!) before about his love of foreshadowing with not only references, but clever parallels. All the way back to the “The Grey Man,” we knew he seemed to know where G’s story was headed.  He paralleled the dad in it with G’s.  (He also had an “Amy” in it, and I’m still convinced he knows that Amy Callen lives!  See also: the brother/sister surviving in “Driving Miss Diaz.” Sure, you could argue that foreshadowed Alex, but don’t rain on my parade!) Well, the first big Bartels ep was *drum roll* the Joelle episode. Despite their history, plus her constant taunting and pissiness, G never ever stopped helping her.  He constantly noted, “I’m doing this for the kid.”  That’s all she had to say to get him to help, and she knew it.  She also knew she could trust him, despite their history.  No matter what, he helped her, and she kept asking HIM for help.  The rogue sect knew she’d go to him, probably based on what she reported. He helped her fake her death, knowing it was bad situation for the kid and dad who deserved to know.  She asked him to help her some more. Why? Because she knew he’d always do the right thing. If she got into danger, he’d help her.   Mosley saw the same in him, in addition to his capability.  (You could draw more potential parallels to Mosley and Joelle, and I will later*, which you can read or not.) So, G jumping through hoops for a mom and her kid? Check. 

Bartels’ next stop? Garrison gets traded.  *still crying but also thinking about how COD and all these people are such pretty criers* Anyway, I’m gonna pull myself together. He made a very big deal about how it was his duty to keep helping families, noting to G that if his sacrifice saved and reunited another family, it would all be worth it.  It seems likely we’ll see G follow in his father’s footsteps, as he has with both of his parents his whole life, even before he realized it.  Perhaps he trades himself for Mosley’s son, or uses himself as a distraction/sacrifice, or he soldiers on despite a head injury to make sure the mission is completed -- and suffers delayed consequences, e.g. hematoma.   G seems the most likely to sacrifice himself.  He also would see himself as the most expendable.  His attachments are withering and commitments lessened this season.  Anna seems ready to let him go, which will probably strain his longest friendship: Arkady’s.  Hetty’s back, and he was trying to take up for the team in her stead, but now he knows they’re “safe” with her there -- at least their jobs are. Mosley seems to have cooled off on her mission to split them. (I’m going to get back to that, and I’ll put it in a separate post -- as I’ve just decided*).  Alex seems to have pulled away, and taken Jake with her. His dad’s where he can’t save him. Sam’s dealing okay, and he seems to be keeping G at a distance, so he probably feels he can’t do much to help him despite wanting to.  Kensi and Deeks have each other. Eric and Nell have each other. (BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS!!!!) Mosley’s son needs his mother.  And everyone else is needed by someone else.  He still always seems surprised by how much he means to people, as it’s not something he’s used to with his childhood, so he definitely sees himself as expendable as he used to be before certain relationships. 

For practicality’s sake, something that would minimize G’s screentime for a few eps (nothing like Kensi’s when Dani was out), might help get COD an ep early on next season for his directing -- without having to wait until the end of the season like they usually do.  It would make scheduling his time across three episodes (location scouting and prep, directing, and editing) easier on him, the writers of the eps, and the crew that has to balance all the disparate schedules.  Directing slots are usually done a year in advance, so they would have known in advance when COD would be back in the director’s chair going into S10.  

Again, with the consequence theme, something going super duper wrong, unlike with the Vietnam mission, would put the team that’s in hot water in even more hot water -- including Mosley.  

Sam potentially losing G? This time of year? After being shot and probably wanting to double-down on his commitment to his children? THE DRAMA! THE ANGST! 

Things going wrong with other team members following some difficult conversations and uncertainty about things? Probably another reason to delay the Densi wedding even more.

So, yes, that sums up (ha!) my different theories.  In response to the * things from above, I’m going to write a separate post about Mosley/Joelle.  I was going to include it in this one, but you’ve all suffered enough.

[newagesispage]

                                                                    SEPTEMBER       2019  

PAGE   RIB

 July 2019 was the hottest month in human history.

*****

This Ordinary Life has sent the world their new EP, Sadderdays!! Give it a listen!

*****

Judd Apatow is putting out a book about Garry Shandling.

*****

Debbie Harry: Face it will be out on Oct. 1

*****

This year the Kennedy center will honor Big Bird, Linda Ronstadt, Earth, Wind and Fire, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Sally Field.

*****

Kentucky principal Phillip Wilson who banned books from his high school in 2009 for homosexual content has been arrested on possession and distribution of child porn.

*****

In Illinois, the capital bill is funded through a doubling of gas tax and an increase in license plate fees. The money is supposed to be for roads, public buildings and bridges. The state constitution tells us the state shall not pay for aid in any school, academy, seminary, college, university or other literary or scientific institution controlled by any church or sectarian denomination. Organizations that are now receiving some of the funding are, Catholic charities, The ARK of Sabina, Inner-city Muslim action network, Gifts from God ministry, Chicago center for Torah and Chesed, Hatzalah, Keshet, Jewish united fund, Lewis University, St. Ann Catholic school and Mt. Sinai hospital, among others.

*****

Gary Busey will appear in the off Broadway musical, Only Human where he will play God.

*****

Eastwood’s The Ballad of Richard Jewell is in production with Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm.

*****

For a look into Brian Jones death catch the doc ‘Who killed Christopher Robin?’

*****

Dale Jr. and family were in a plane crash but everybody seems to be ok.

*****

I hear that Porn hub is planting a tree for every 100 videos watched.

*****

Days alert: Rex is out. What about Chloe? Who will love her now? They still had the chemistry. Oh, never mind, Chloe is gone too!** Ted is out. Tripp is out. Jordan will be back briefly.** OMG How my heart fluttered when Tony and Anna saw each other again. Oh, the magic of a soap!! **At last Robin Strasser is on the way as Vivian. ** Greg Vaughan is dating Angie Harmon and they are a pretty adorable couple.**Why don’t they try to charge Kristen with Holly’s murder? She may want to tell them where they are then.  And I am so sick of Eric leaving sweet women to sniff after Nicole, enough. He used to be one of my favorite characters but it has gotten old. ** Please Please put Xander and Sarah together!!!!!

*****

Dolly Parton’s America: A podcast will begin this fall.

*****

The new owners of the LA sex club that was known as Snctm are taking apps and promising carnal bliss.

*****

Scary Clown told workers in a GM plant in Michigan not to sell their homes. He promised the plant would not shut down and guess what? Lie!** Trump owes El Paso 470 thousand for his MAGA rally. ** Perhaps we should all refer to him as he refers to himself, Ttump.** A Nazi rally in Germany handed out hats inspired by the Trump campaign that read: Make Germany Hate Again.** We have to hit him where it hurts..$.. This is all he understands.** The evangelicals finally got a little upset when Trump took the lords name in vain. ** Trump wanted to buy Greenland, they wouldn’t bite and he cancelled his trip to Denmark.** Now he is The King of Isreal? The chosen one? The second coming of God? ** Word is that half of Trumps twitter followers are fake. Also, the US Labor Dept. says America created 500,000 fewer jobs in 2018 and 2019 than previously reported. **Rural farmers are 50-50 on Trump like the rest of us. Why do we categorize people? Things like this show that our differences don’t usually have anything to do with our religion, the color of our skin,$, job or location. We are different at our cores in what we think and feel about others and the world around us.** Scary Clown has told some staff to get this wall started no matter the coast and to just, ”take the land” if necessary and he will pardon them later. He has taken FEMA money to get the ball rolling as a hurricane bears down on the U.S.

*****

Why do we vote in those that allow the drug, insurance and credit card, lender companies to make all the dough?? Let’s ALL enjoy America.

*****

A newly invented bag can be dissolved in water after use.

*****

Pardon Blagoevich?? What??

*****

The Black Jewel Coal Co. has filed for bankruptcy. The miner’s last paychecks bounced. Nobody will answer their questions about their 4o1k’s. Since they are not technically laid off yet, they can’t receive unemployment. The company got 5 mil in emergency funds from the bank and they owe 976 thousand in fines.

*****

Kelly Craft, a major Trump donor is the new UN ambassador.**US ambassador to Russia, Jon Huntsman is out.

*****

I have to say, I don’t get why people aren’t more excited about the democratic candidates. There are a few that could go away but there are some really fabulous ideas there. I hope they put their egos aside when the last is standing. The lot of them would compose a great cabinet. And how do you not get excited about the future of our country?? How can you be so inside your own head that you put our own day to day ahead of your country? We all have to pay our bills, work, care for others and enjoy our passions from time to time but this is crunch time people!!! Pay attention!!** Beto’s REAL reaction to the El Paso shootings did more for him than all his relaunches. He was himself and not what he thought he should be. Trump and Biden were giving sympathy to the wrong cities for goodness sake!  Trump couldn’t even show any true feelings as he gave the thumbs up beside an orphan and tweeted about how lousy Shep Smith as he flew to the next photo op of victims.** It’s hard to look away from the freak show.** The next Dem debate is Sept.12.

*****

With no notice, immigrants who are here for life saving treatments have been given 33 days to clear out of the country.** Scary Clown is fighting with Comey again. What an unhappy schmuck this President is.

*****

It seems to me that if 2 people had run for student council president and the winner cheated and abused his office, they would make him step down. Would they have another vote or let the opponent step in?? The President of the US post is a bit more important than student council President. ** Now Trump is thinking that nuking hurricanes might be a good idea.

*****

If elected, Bernie says he will tell us what is known about aliens from outer space.** Hickenlooper is out.** Seth Moulton is out.**Jay Inslee is out (oooh, that one hurts). I love ya Jay!! He is now running for reelection as Governor.** Gillibrand is out** Former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts  Governor Bill Weld are in for the Republican side.

*****

Some studies show that over 50% of inmates have dyslexia.

*****

Jim Gaffigan made some jokes about craft beers including how labels might have say a penguin wrestling a cactus. Well, a small brewery in NY has made it happen with their blend called Penguin and Cactus

*****

6000 people of Oklahoma are dead from opiods and Johnson and Johnson have been ordered to pay $572 mil per the court verdict.

*****

The International wildlife regulator has banned the capture and export of baby African elephants.

*****

Leslie Jones is out at SNL.

*****

“Under the Trump administration, the pledge ”the right to bear arms,”  has morphed into “Don’t just stand there, shoot somebody.” – Carl Reiner

*****

In the event I am killed, organize, mobilize and get the peace plan passed and put my body on the NRA’s doorstep in Fairfax, Va. – David Hogg

*****

The trailer for this Joker movie with Joaquin Phoenix, Marc Maron and Robert DeNiro looks fucking amazing!! Hurry up Oct.4!!

*****

The NRA has 5 million members but one still has to wonder why the rights of gun owners supersede the rights of everybody else. Why don’t we hear more about their money scandals? Just when you hear that Trump is asking his people behind the scenes if the NRA still has power, he and LaPierre talk and the Pres backs off his tough gun talk. We know who is Wayne’s bitch. ** A group of surgeons have been showing X-Rays of what a gun can do as they protest gun violence.** The world now has bulletproof backpacks.**New schools are being designed to cut down the number of victims of a shooter. Hallways are curved and classrooms can lock.

*****

The Firearm dealer license certification act in Illinois requires those who hold a Federal firearm license to also obtain a state certificate of license and comply with state regulations. All dealers will be required to have security alarms where guns are stored in case of intrusion. Dealers will also have to keep electronic records of their inventory. Gun dealers and the Illinois state rifle association are challenging, of course before this all takes effect in 2020.

*****

“We don’t have an actual Presidency right now. We have a reality show whose ratings have begun to slide and whose fading star sees cancellation on the way.” – Eugene Robinson.

*****

The Bruce Lee philosophy , Be Water, is being used by the Hong Kong protesters. Be Strong like ice. Be fluid like water. Gather like Dew. Scatter like mist.

*****

As the crackdown on immigrants continues, word is that Trump still employs many undocumented workers. And why aren’t the employers arrested?** The administration wants to make it easy  for the wealthy and educated immigrants to come to this country. Again, only the rich have rights.** Trump has moved $150 mil from FEMA to the immigration courts as hurricane Dorian heads this way. ** He is telling his staff to just “take the land” and build the wall, disregard environmental rules and he will pardon them. A joke?? I wouldn’t be so sure.**

*****

Jews against Ice really let ‘em have it. They shut down Amazon as they marched against the internment of immigrants. The rally cry: We will not stay silent while tech companies profit off of cruelty.

*****

Jeff Epstein is dead and the conspiracy theories have begun. Many are glad that Epstein is dead and some wish he had lived to pay for his crimes. Would he have turned on his high end friends?  David Koch is also dead.** Word is that in 2008 Epstein bought female undies from the jail shop.

*****

A recent survey shows that 45% of people wear underwear for 2 days, 13% for a week. Tell me this can’t be true.

*****

Chris Christie and Anthony Scaramuchi are always everywhere and now Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars?? OMG.. Can we stop seeing these people?** Sarah Huckabee Sanders is joining Fox news.

*****

White Supremacy is officially the majority of domestic terrorism in the U.S. Now, let me see, who seems to want to be their leader?** Advertisers pulled out of Tucker Carlson’s show after he called white supremacy ,’not a thing.’

*****

Truckers have been really hurt by the tax cuts. Longer hours and less money have come since they can’t deduct expenses the way they used to. Regulations have been relaxed that limits hours on the road.

*****

The Department of labor is proposing a rule that would allow government contractors to fire workers who are unmarried and pregnant or LGBTQ.

*****

David Gilmour sold his guitars for 20 thou and used the money to fight climate change.

*****

Michael Cohen claims that Jerry Falwell Jr., his wife and a pool boy they met at a hotel became fast friends. Eventually Cohen had to intervene because of some lurid photos. He claims that the Falwell’s are quite kinky. The couple gave the pool boy over a mil to buy a resort that has become trendy with the LGBTQ community.  Apparently nobody else knows what is on those photos that Cohen brokered a deal for.

*****

Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a story won the Freedom of Speech award at the Traverse city film fest. She announced the release of the film by giving a heads up to hashtag emmyless Donald.

*****

California is trying to make those that run for President show us their tax returns. Illinois rejected that idea.

*****

Blaze it forward

*****

U.S. Fencer, Rick Imboden took a knee during the national anthem after taking gold at the Pan Am games.

*****

Stumptown looks like a good show but boy what a terrible name.

*****

Check out the new book, Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow.

*****

Ron Burgundy has been making the rounds.

*****

Yada Yada Yada politics has made its way into our thoughts with Marianne Williamson warning us of business as usual.

*****

Geena Davis is getting the humanitarian Oscar.

*****

In a joke that Seth Meyers told he said, ”Cleveland Browns win Super Bowl!”  So it may never happen but it was nice to hear.

*****

Chairman of the parent company of Equinox and Soul Cycle and owner of the Dolphins, Stephen Ross, caused a stir when he held a fundraiser for Trump.

*****

Liam and Miley broke up.

*****

Someone started a little joke about renaming the street in front of Trump tower. But people have started to take it seriously and NY is considering the name President Barack Obama Avenue.

*****

The administration is rolling back regs on the endangered species act. It has been a great success but Trump and the lobbyists think it just stands in the way of their profits.

*****

28% of delivery drivers have eaten some of your food.

*****

The Rolling Stones are trying to push a green agenda on the latest tour. At some venues fans can purchase a tones cup for $3, use it all night and then take it home or turn it in for your $3 back.** In 1964 the first Stones album came out and the Mariner 4 fly by satellite had its first look at Mars. In November last year the Insight lander thrusters disturbed a rock on Mars which has been dubbed Rolling Stones rock.

*****

Studies show that the most dangerous years of our lives are the year we are born and the year we retire. Depression spikes 40% after retirement. In Okinawa, Japan they don’t even have a word for retire. On the whole they eat a lot of fresh seafood and eat smaller portions. They seem to live the longest, healthiest lives.

*****

The green shirt guy was a thing for a few minutes.

*****

Wal Mart is really cracking down on security, one store at a time. Some people are asking the store to stop selling guns and donating to NRA backed lawmakers.

*****

The Black lady sketch show is Robin Thede’s new thing which is good but her last show was good too.

 R.I.P. Saoirse Kennedy Hill, Hal Prince, the El Paso and Dayton and Odessa/Midland shooting victims, D.A. Pennebaker, Toni Morrison, Jimmy Aldaoud, Valerie Harper and Peter Fonda.

[hoopslab]

Game of Thrones S7 Ep 5 Eastwatch: What does annulment mean?

SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 5 OF SEASON 7. I said,  SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES ON HBO, UP THROUGH EPISODE 5 OF SEASON 7.

"He (High Septon Maynard) issued an annulment for a Prince Rhaegar and remarried him to someone else at the same time in a secret ceremony in Dorne.” --Gilly

One of the fun yet maddening things about A Game of Thrones is how the writers can toss out something just to mess with the audience, that the characters on-screen completely miss because they have no reason to pay attention. They went back to that in a big way this week, with the whole scene where Gilly was just annoying the mess out of Sam with “unimportant” minutiae while he stews on whether or not to drop out of the Citadel. Of course, the writers had to tease us by dropping something important into the mix. But HOLY CRAP. They just drop info that changes the entire game, then have Sam completely miss it? I was yelling at my TV like it was a horror movie with that one.

So, not only is Jon the son of Rhaegar and Lyanna...which was confirmed last season, roughly 19 years after the R + L = J theory went crazy in nerd reader land. But now, we hear that Rhaegar had annulled his marriage with Elia Martell (sorry Oberyn), and that he actually married Lyanna...thus, not only is Jon the son of the late crown prince, he’s the LEGITIMATE son of the late crown prince. Meaning that, Dany has absolutely no leg to stand on as the “rightful queen”, as in every way that particular crown would go to Jon? Oh yes, Bend the Knee indeed! 

Bronn pulls Jamie out of the fire...and the water

At the end of episode 7.4, we saw Jaime Lannister charging Daenerys Targeryan on a horse, only to have Drogon the dragon catch him before he can get there and flame the whole situation. Just before Jaime is flambe’d, someone rides into the scene and pushes Jaime out of the fire and into the water, where Jaime’s armor sinks him like a stone. End scene.

This week, we got confirmation that, as expected, that last second savior was Bronn Stone. Bronn then doubled down on his heroism by diving to the bottom of the water and dragging Jaime, armor and all, back to the surface. Once back on land, coughing up water, Jaime and Bronn continue the verbal sniping of their bromance, with Jaime complaining that Bronn could have killed him and Bronn saying that, until Jaime gives him the castle he was promised, no one gets to kill Jaime EXCEPT for Bronn! He did make the exception that when Dany brings all three of her dragons into play, all bets were off because dragons are where their partnership ends. Speaking of dragons...

Drogon and Jon stare into each other’s eyes

As teased in the previews for the episode, upon their return to Storm’s End, Dany and Drogon confronted Jon Snow. However, in reality, it didn’t appear that Dany had any say-so whatsoever in the confrontation. She looked just as confused as the rest of us about just what was going on between her head dragon and her nemesis/bae that refuses to bend the knee.

The scene, which took about two minutes but didn’t have any words, was powerful. Drogon ran up on Jon like it was on, but Jon didn’t back down. Instead, they stared at each other for several seconds, then Jon reacted like one would when your friend has a giant dog that wants to get to know you. Jon took off his glove, let Drogon smell his hand, then started petting him. Now, outside of this proving once again that Jon has nerves of steel, this also was another confirmation that his Targeryen blood will likely let him eventually control a dragon. “The Dragon has three heads”, as the prophecy goes, and it certainly looks like Jon is on deck to join Dany as the second.

Also, as I saw someone point out on Twitter, there are now exactly three people in the show that have touched a full-grown dragon and lived. Dany, Jon, and Tyrion. Hmmmm.

Arya & Littlefinger: who’s playing who?

Littlefinger has been arguably the sneakiest player in the Game of Thrones universe, but Arya has trained as a Faceless Man and prides herself on being a good spy. In this episode, after clashing with Sansa about whether Sansa really wants to steal Jon’s crown, Arya decides to spy on Littlefinger. She sees him come into possession of a scroll, breaks into his room, and finds it. The scroll is the letter that Sansa wrote way back in Season 1, when she was held by the Lannisters and thought she would be marrying Joffrey. In that letter, Sansa reports King Robert’s death, names her father a traitor, and urges her brother Robb to surrender to Joffrey. Ouch.

The letter visibly horrifies Arya, who sneaks back out of Littlefinger’s room, apparently unaware that Lord Baelish is now spying her from around the corner. Put into perspective, it certainly seems that Littlefinger is playing Arya, letting her find the scroll to fan the suspicion between the sisters and keep them from working together. Will Arya be smart enough to catch it, or will she fall head-on into his trap? We should soon find out.

Bran wargs a million ravens and spies undead army

This section was self-explanatory. Bran sat at the tree, warged into a whole flock of ravens that he sent north of the wall, and spied the Night King’s forces...before the Night King looked up and broke Bran’s hold on the birds. Bran sent warnings out all around Westeros, including to both the Citadel and Storm’s End. The Citadel seemingly ignored the warning, prompting Sam’s frustrated conversation with Gilly from the opening paragraph and ultimately Sam’s departure from the Citadel. Jon Snow got triple-blindsided by the message, as he learned that both Arya and Bran were still alive at the same time that he got confirmation that his nightmare was on the march. This leads directly to later events in the show (below).

Ser Friend Zone & Ser rows-a-lot both return

Jorah Mormont was last seen in the Citadel, cured by Sam, so we all knew that he would be heading directly for his Khaleesi ASAP. He found her this week, and was welcomed back with open arms. The dynamics whenever he, Jon and Dany are in a seen together are interesting. Dany openly shows her emotion at Jorah’s return, but he looks at Jon before responding. And Jon quietly stares daggers at him too. 

Meanwhile, the bigger return in the episode was Gendry, Robert Baratheon’s bastard son that we last saw rowing away from a date with Melisandre’s flames after The Onion Knight freed him three or four years ago. It’s been a popular inside joke that, as the seasons were going along, Gendry was still somewhere rowing that boat. The Onion Knight even delivers a line to that effect, tongue firmly in cheek, as a nod to the fans. Gendry has been waiting for something to happen to give him an excuse to leave his life of building armor for the Lannisters, so he’s quick to bounce with Ser Davos. Along the way he shows off his skills with a hammer, crushing two nosy guards, and illustrating that he has at least some of his father’s fighting skills. 

The funny part of Gendry’s return (outside of his alarming resemblance to Ser Podrick) was his introduction to Jon. Davos warns him, repeatedly, to hide his past and use an assumed name so as to not bother Jon. Instead, Gendry marches right up to Jon, tells him his name, his lineage, and announces that since their fathers were friends, they would be friends too. Jon appears skeptical, especially when Gendry makes a quip about Jon being short, then suddenly he smiles and they become friends in a very meme-able way.

I’m a King

After Jon receives word from Bran that the Night King is on the march, he decides it’s time to leave Storm’s End and head home. Dany visibly doesn’t want him to go. Tyrion then comes up with the (IMO not that smart) idea that if someone can go North of the wall, capture one of the undead army, and bring that zombie south it could be used as proof for Cersei that they needed to be fighting the zombies instead of each other. As I said, to me it was far fetched. But, Jorah Mormont jumped on the idea with two feet, promising to bring back a zombie for his Queen. Dany looked semi-emotional, but then Jon jumps in that he’ll lead the expedition. First, he absolutely trumped Jorah’s I’m-going-to-impress-Khaleesi play. Second, Dany didn’t react well at all. 

OK, that’s an exaggeration. But barely. Dany’s face said it all, then she told him she hadn’t given him permission to leave. He then drops the TI line, “I’m a King”, so I don’t need permission. And proceeds to sweet talk her into nodding her head, when she clearly didn’t want to. This leads to...

Bronn matchmakes the Lannister brothers

To lay the groundwork for his big plan to convince Cersei with a zombie, Tyrion has Davos smuggle him into King’s Landing to meet with Jaime. This is the trip when Davos goes and finds Gendry. But while he’s doing that, Tyrion gets old buddy Bronn to set up the meet with his brother. Jaime’s still pissed the Tyrion killed their dad, and Peter Dinklage killed the scene because you can actually see him bleeding inside that his beloved brother hasn’t forgiven him. But he does convince Jaime to at least deliver the message to Cersei: upcoming queens meeting to discuss armistice because of the Zombies.

Cersei most likely to try to recruit the Night King?

Jamie goes to report to Cersei about his meeting with Tyrion, only for her to reveal that she knew about it all along and suggest that he punish Bronn for setting it up. She suggests that she’ll accept the armistice because Dany has the numbers and is currently winning, but she also doubles-down (triples down? quadruples down? What’s the highest number you can think of?) on the idea that she’s going to find a way to turn this to her advantage and find a way to defeat Dany, especially because Cersei is pregnant again. And this time she plans to tell the world that it’s Jaime’s baby. Twincest ick factor resurfaces a bit, but more than that, there is very little in the Game of Thrones universe scarier than motivated Cersei planning skull-duggery. I really wouldn’t put it past her to try to form an alliance with the Night King, if that’s even possible.

The Magnificent 7

The final scene in this week’s episode wasn’t a big battle sequence, like it’s been in several episodes this season. Instead, we journey up to EastWatch and get a reunion of seven badasses that are all going to go on this zombie expedition: Jon Snow, Jorah Mormont, Gendry, Tormund Giantsbane (huge readheaded wildling that loves The Big Lady), The Hound, Beric Dondarrion (guy with eyepatch that keeps dying and being reborn) and Thoros of Myr (priest of the Red Lord that keeps reviving Beric). 

It turns out, most of the seven have reason to hate each other, but Beric says that this doesn’t matter since it’s their destiny to fight together. The Hound keeps it real, curses all the talking, and says he’s ready to go. Jon delivers the final line, that they’re all on the same side because they’re all breathing (while their enemies don’t have to breathe). The show ends with a shot of the seven of them, beyond the wall, gearing up for what looks to be another action-packed next-to-last-episode of the season...a Game of Thrones specialty. 

Not mentioned above, but the showrunners keep teasing the fear that Tyrion and Varys, as well as others, have that Dany will become more like her father as another fire-loving tyrant. Will anything come of that? Will Arya fall for Littlefinger’s plots and go after Sansa? And what the heck can the magnificent 7 accomplish against the Nightking’s undead army of thousands? Can’t wait to check it out.

Other articles of interest

Game of Thrones S7 Ep1: Winter has been a long time coming

Game of Thrones S7 Ep2 Stormborn : Where is Ghost?

Game of Thrones S7 Ep3 The Queen’s Justice: Ice meets Fire

Game of Thrones S7 Ep 4 The Spoils of War: Stark Family Reunion

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The Report Card – Fantasy High: The Seven Ep 3

Let’s Split Up and Look for Clues! 

Welcome back to the Seven and the Museum of Adventuring. My previous pronouncement of combat was a little premature but hold tight, we’ll get there. For now, we’re back with Antiope who just saw a glimpse of the Ending of Things (aka, Ending) and is freaking out a bit. She tells the others and they all do various checks to see what they can find out.

Ostentatia casts Commune With City and clocks that there is some kind of abjuration shield magic on the government buildings in town, stopping them from being spied on. She also clocks some lingering undead-ish magic and a weird divination effect on Antiope, specifically on the Aguefort logo of her jacket, like someone scryed on her and just got that she had something to do with Aguefort. At this, Penny reminds her that the only true piece of info they gave Ending when they broke her out is that they were from Aguefort.

Sam with a 19 Insight still feels the connection she and Ant have with Ending because of their spells turned against them in the initial encounter. Yelle does a Perception check (27) and once again doesn’t really get bad, dreadful, menacing vibes. But also, she recognizes that she’s chill with a lot of things most people don’t love. 

Antiope reiterates that she texted Charity that she’s interested in the internship so she can learn more info--even better now that they know the buildings are safe from scrying. Yelle remembers Aguefort’s warning about people watching them and Sam asks Zelda if her “weird boyfriend” (“he’s actually really cool”) is friends with the elven oracle. Zelda says yeah, they’re both friends with Adaine, she can ask about any weird divination stuff. Sam makes sure to specify she should look into TK but NOT Ending, no doubt remembering what happened when she tried to do a spell on her. 

It’s been a big day as Zelda says so they all go to the TGIF-esque Slappy McFinnigans to celebrate (which Sam has problems with--the fact that they’re celebrating I mean, but she’s mainly ignored). They’re quickly kicked out because Katja can’t help herself from trying to brush the mane of their centaur server and they reconvene at the more their speed SlamBurger, where a horse can fully destroy a soda machine to absolutely zero reaction.  Zelda says that Ostentatia was right in that they should all do the quest because it doesn’t close any doors and they have the 2 weeks to figure things out. They all seem a bit more on the same page (though Sam is still pretty frosty towards Ant) and start making plans.

Before they leave, Yelle pulls aside Ant and Sam and says hey, first of all, you two are still linked to Ending from before. Second of all, I know y’all are Going Through It right now and you don’t have to talk about it or make up right away but you need to get your heads in the game and you need to know that you’re both loved and still family. 

Penny, Zelda, Katja, and Ostentatia go back to the museum to try and get more information for their quest. Katja goes to the information desk (horse in tow, of course) and just starts asking information about TK. She’s told that she’s one of the museum’s benefactors and has been missing for years, and hey, do you understand that a museum’s info desk is about where the water fountains and exhibits are, not just random information about the world?

Ostentatia bails her out by calling her over so she can do her plan which is just to walk into the back area like she owns the place. Now, Aguefort students do have a certain level of clearance to be back there and she does have her school ID. But instead of explaining that, she tried to use her Earrings of Diamond Charm to charm the employee she runs into which fails. And then she does a pretty good tag-team lie with Katja about how they NEED to pass a class but that doesn’t fly. Then Ostentatia tries flirting which ALSO doesn’t work. Zelda at this point steps in and just headbuts the dude so they can book it away. I personally would have gone with, “Do you know who we are? We killed the dragon that’s your current main exhibit,” but you know. No backseat adventuring. 

While this is happening, Penny is stealthing like a pro, looking for anything Arcana related. Ostentatia and Katja also did checks (O getting a nat 20) and we’ll go through all their info gathered now. 

Katja basically gets info on TK we kind of already knew. She was a benefactor of the museum. She’s centuries old like Aguefort. She was concerned with consciousness and divinity and specifically how will and divine will manifested, as well as elemental magic.  

Ostentatia gets a lot of info with her Nat 20. She gets a full map to the temple where TK went which is called the Temple of Earth Defiant. The point of the temple is that it’s up in the open air and harsh winds--wind being a symbol of chaos and unpredictability to dwarves--but they still use it as a place to honor their heroes and they rebuild and upkeep it despite the erosion and how hard it is to get there. It’s hallowed from evil and lots of stories about it involve heroes racing there for sanctuary. It was made by dwarves but it’s a pilgrimage site for other primordial beings like goliaths and earth genasi (which is what TK is). There are 3 heroes who have big statues here: Asha Hammerheart (a SUPER dope name I must say), Yvonna of the Sundering Hills , and Kora Ironbrow.

Penny finds that, amongst Kalvaxus’s hoard there were 7 unrecovered artifacts--the Mirrors of the Eidolons (which are the smashed mirrors they found it seems). Eidelons are kind of like the elemental plane version of angels/celestials. They’re primordial (remember Katja saw primordial language on the wall of the dragon cave) and kind of aligned with things like titans and genies. Raw element with no agenda (unlike celestials and demons and such which have a clear alignment which makes up the D&D religious system). It is said by wizards--who look at these things in more of a nuts and bolts way than say clerics who take the fuzzier religions view--that Eidolons are the hands of the gods because gods are beings of spirit--how could they form the physical world. Will of the divine manifested by elemental beings? Sounds right up TK’s alley.

Sam decides she’s desperate enough for information that she calls her mom who she is understandably snippy with. Her mom gives her a contact to talk to when she asks about TK but Sam stonewalls her on show business talk. She tries to play the “mother knows best, you’ll thank me later,” in a kind of Gothel-y way while acting like anything in the past never happened and says Sam is attacking her but when Sam accuses her of neglect, she proves her right by hanging up the phone.

Sam then calls the number and it turns out to be Lola Embers (Fig’s agent) who has been waiting for Sam’s call for ages and wants to talk to her, even though she’s currently chasing her dog across the park. She says she met TK once at a genasi woman networking thing and also says she once saw Charity get into an argument with TK over government funding or not getting a grant or something similar. She then says she’s in a lake trying to get her dog and Sam, being a water genasi who can breathe underwater and also a fundamentally good person even though she’s currently being aggro as hell, goes to the park to help her. Lola assures her that if she’s ready, she’ll help her get new acting gigs and that the world is ready for the new her. 

Yelle meanwhile casts Speak With Plants on some trees near TK’s office and, after a super stoner to stoner conversation, gets a magical footprint trail of where she ran off to when she absconded 12 years ago. 

Antiope (who is in a sports bra because she destroyed her top with the Aguefort logo since that’s what was pinged, revealing in a wild, nat-1 fueled retcon that she got a tramp stamp reading “Leader” in the Red Waste) goes to see Charity to fill out some paperwork, ingratiate herself, and perhaps get some info. Charity has her hot, young, assistant (who Antiope is instantly crushing on) give Ant his shirt (and Charity’s lack of surprise at seeing his 4 horses pulling a chariot tattoo makes the group think they’re def banging). She kind of explains what the Ministry does and Antiope boils it down a bit to snitching on other adventurers. Charity says it’s more of a who watches the watchmen situation and visibly twitches when she has to say the word “snitch”. 

When she takes a second to call Antiope’s dad, she accidentally leaves a tab open on her computer which has TK’s file open (probably up from when the Maidens asked about her earlier). Antiope sneaks a peek and learns that the artifact that TK stole is called the Legendarium Extrodia and it tracks quests. It seems that at some point TK must have had top level access to get her hands on it. It also shows that TK was marked for assassination (which seems like a pretty good reason to get the heck out of dodge). Brennan also says she’s learned enough that she can use the L.E. if she finds it. 

At this point, Yelle tells everyone to come back ASAP so they can follow the magic footsteps. Antiope wants to come but doesn’t want to burn bridges with Charity (or chances with Preston--equally important) so she, at Katja’s suggestion--pretends to have diarrhea and is Nat 20 convincing. Interesting choice for the end of the first meeting with a person you’re crushing on. But Preston is actually pretty supportive as she races out the door as fast as possible.

The Seven follow the footsteps out of Solace and it becomes clear that TK was headed to the dwarven temple Ostentatia learned about. This is a multi-day journey so Cinnamon sings a glorious, magical, horse song and summons mounts for everyone which I will now name because this is obviously the most important part of the episode:

Snowfire - Danielle

Taffodill - Sam

Alagonia - Antiope

Candyheart - Penny

Starforge - Ostentatia 

Strawberry Dancer - Zelda 

Crucial info. 

As they travel, Antiope casts Primeval Awareness and gets that there is something ancient in the mountain. They travel through Pilgrim’s Pass (a village area most travelers to the temple pass through) but find it completely razed to the ground. They investigate. 

With an 18 Survival check, Antiope finds tracks that seem halfway between dog and cat. There are more than 4 legs and it’s hard to tell how old they are because there’s not a lot of rain in the area. They could have been left long ago and been undisturbed. Regardless, these are clearly from monstrosities. On a 26 History Check, Katja knows that this area used to be protected by Blink Dogs (teleporting dogs) but they seem to be all gone now. On a 22 Nature check, Yelle sees a weird feather made out of plant material. It seems like fae stuff but bad vibes. On an 18 Insight check, Sam knows this was a purposeful slaughter.

And on Penny’s 30 Arcana check, oh boy. Penny finds broken common scrawled on the wall in human blood talking about a queen of the mountain who rules the skies. That only the queen may see and none may see themselves. And that the people were told to destroy the seeing glass and did not obey. In from of that message is a bear hide covering something magic. Penny lifts it with reckless abandon and sees tons of mirror shards.

Friendship bracelets! She thinks.

Gotcha bitch, the thing in the mirror says.

Uh-oh.   

Penny calls over her friends to let them knows she may have made a tiny mistake. The group is pretty split between, “Understandable,” and “Girl, WHAT?” In her defense, she did try to cast Friends on the person on the other side of the mirror shards but that’s not enough to stop an entire pack of 50-60 Displacer Beast (magic tentacle cats)/Blink Dog hybrid monstrosities along with the Harpy Queen (voice from the mirror) and her plant feathered harpy minions to start rapidly making their way to their location. 

It is at this point that Ostentatia remembers that abominations and monstrosities cannot step into the temple which means it’s time to RUN. 

And NOW it’s combat time. 

The premise of this fight is that the girls are on their horses, moving towards the center of the temple as fast as they can while fending off the closest enemies. I won’t give an exact play by play but the two highlights are as follows:

Yelle conjures up a bunch of geese with raptor stats (...so normal geese) to swarm the head cat/dog abomination and has to do a truly stunning amount of math for which she is rewarded with SEVENTY POINTS OF DAMAGE. 

Antiope does some insane arrow trickery and gets the Queen Harpy in the wing (which Ostentatia helpfully gets on video so she can show Preston later) and then forces her to take damage as she falls. If not for an extremely lucky Box of Doom nat 20, she may have been down for the count. Antiope still comes away with more than FIFTY points of damage on her though. 

And we end the episode mid-combat! We will catch up on our girls next time!

Superlatives 

Penny: Most Likely to Make Friends During a Hostage Situation 

As a companion to Danielle’s superlative last episode, Penny gets this award for reading or misreading every situation as an opportunity to make friends or make friendship bracelets for the ones she already has. 

Random Thoughts

Did you guys notice that with Katja having Cinnamon and Charity’s assistant being Preston, that’s two of the main pet NPCs from A Crown of Candy?

Antiope’s Reaction to Yelle Saying That Maybe Things Ending Isn’t So Bad: Rail against the dying of the light! Why are you OK with this?

Penny’s Reaction to Yelle Saying That Maybe Things Ending Isn’t So Bad: Entropy is TERRIBLE! Everything needs order!

The greasy cashier’s response to Ostentatia’s flirty, “Come here often?” is “To my job? Honestly no.” Brennan? Chef’s kiss. 

My other fave line this episode is from Sam. “I believe Cinnamon fucks.”

It’s very cute that Penny is like, “I gotta text Riz about this Eidelon stuff!” Not because she wants help. Just so they can geek out together. 

The joke that Brennan didn’t think about the birds is so funny considering all the bird facts in Misfits.

Also re Birds attacking: “They made a movie about this Brennan!” 

Good on Ant for refusing an Aguefort sweatshirt from Charity when offered after the little scrying incident before. Remembering things like this saves lives. 

It has been brought up several times that Ending isn’t necessarily Bad just Ancient and Powerful and I trust Yelle’s vibe check but also, like, a forest fire doesn’t have malice behind it but it can still devastate a city while it clears out dead trees that need to be cleared, you know? Not ready to start wild speculation yet but I am curious. And am similarly curious about the sisters Ending has mentioned. Oh and the parallels of 7 Maidens, 7 mirrors. It’s all there, we just need a little more info. 

Honestly, get you a man who will see you rushing out of a building, loudly claiming to have diarrhea, and instead of being grosses out will just supportively confess his own stomach issues. I wish he was just a little younger cause I want that for Ant. 

I do like that D20 has been playing a little more fast and loose with the RP ep/combat ep format. I think it really helps with story flow. 

In this episode Antiope and Brennan as various non-Zelda NPCs rolled 2 Nat 20s. O rolled one. Ant rolled 1 Nat 1--which was on a self imposed roll to see how she responded to Sephie’s tramp stamp improv. And O may have rolled one for initiative also but I wasn’t sure.