#and we’ve only got the first half of S3 to work with

[the-woman-upstairs]

What really sold me on this character arc for Cressida and the Cressida/Eloise relationship is when she’s confronted with the opportunity to spread gossip about Penelope getting assistance from Colin, but actively chooses not to. You can see her considering the opportunity to ruin someone she views as a rival, but ultimately decides to say nothing and walk away. What’s most important is how all this comes after Eloise calls her out for her cruel behavior towards the other ladies- Penelope in particular. Cressida literally tries to be a better person for Eloise and while that certainly wasn’t on my Bridgerton bingo card, I’m all for seeing how it plays out.

[mdhwrites]

The Owl House Season 3 Could Never Have Been Great

This isn’t to say it couldn’t have been good or enjoyable. However, the concepts at play and the setups for S3 were flawed so deeply that more S3 doesn’t necessarily mean a better S3 and could have never been something truly special. So why do I think this? Well, first let’s just state the obvious: While we’ve an abridged version of whatever S3 was dreamed by the cast, we have gotten their S3. The Collector exists so the crew’s willingness to abandon ideas and concepts for the sake of their narrative is only display as a firm “No.” After all, if they knew they had so little time, the Collector and the trip the human realm should have been cut. Period. There wasn’t time to make an audience properly care about the Collector or make trip to, or the return from, the human realm satisfying. So I’m basing this mostly off of the structure of the three specials. How they decided to build and lower tension because it’s hard to believe that there was ever a different plan. For some parts, it’s literally impossible to imagine a proper different plan that isn’t just what Amphibia did. Belos was almost always going to be needed for the portal after all and to be something that even COULD challenge the characters in a fight. Kikimora is the only villain in the Isles that has shown much agency of her own and built up at all besides Terra who the kids haven’t already beaten. These were fundamental problems going into S3 that the show wasn’t going to ever have proper answers to because it simply didn’t setup proper answers. But let’s talk about those villains because The Owl House is ostensibly an adventure show. It’s aiming for a big, dramatic, adventure/fantasy show climax as I write this the day before the finale. The first villain of S3 is Belos who at the end of S2 got beat with one poke by the Collector. He also was shown to be irredeemable, racist and an idiot who hasn’t even tried to keep up with what the human realm is like now while waiting for his final plan. He is an evil emperor though who is connected to Hunter and Luz and strong enough to even beat all five Hexide Squad members when together as he proved both in King’s Tide. He is a genuine threat who has no reason to hold back. He is the villain that works... But everything I just described also is why he needs to the big bad. No other villain who is strong enough to challenge the characters has any connection to them.The only person the Collector has a connection to is King. From just a basic storytelling perspective, Belos is the big bad. Is the logical final boss and he’s not being allowed to be that because they want to do the Collector. Worse yet, because of how natural of a cliffhanger going through the portal is, that’s the halfway point of the season. 10 episodes gone to the human realm with a bestial Belos being the only real threat there. So the rest of the human realm stuff would have had to be drama and slice of life while looking for how to get people back home in a realm that frankly should have less answers than the Boiling Isles and the Boiling Isles had few themselves and less that worked when read.

So how well did S2 setup drama and slice of life stuff in the human realm? Well, Amity’s been reduced to being Luz’s girlfriend and her daddy issues, half of which aren’t there and the other half doesn’t appear to be allowed to have actual angst so I guess nothing from her. Willow is barely a character at this point, having been mostly used for other characters and what was brought up in S3 Ep. 2 only works really for one episode. Gus is actually the best Slice of Life character with how his knowledge could be challenged and reactions to realizing how little he actually knows about humans but from a drama perspective he doesn’t have a lot because he’s only been taken properly seriously in two episodes of the whole series. Luz has angst that admittedly could have been pulled back and forth on for if she was staying or going but if they kept the characterization Luz has post Yesterday’s Lie of Luz literally seeming incapable of telling the truth to anyone besides Eda and King, you’re screwed in doing anything with her. She’s not going to actually be tackling the issue so you can’t actually make plots around it. At best, you can bring up through other characters for and against. But, you know, two of those characters are her best friends, one is her girlfriend and Camila is a literal saint who’s characterization would have had to be DRASTICALLY changed in order to make her make cases for staying in the human realm at this point. Hunter is the only point in favor for Luz needing to stay and Hunter’s big character finish against Belos is about how much he prefers the perks of being a good guy over having been an EC stooge so he still reinforces that Luz has done good. This is part of why Luz’s angst over the Collector is so assinine because even if in real life, one can easily ignore that people like them, they’ve done good to others, etc. like that (hi, I have depression myself), narratively is INFURIATING and easily can imply other things about her if not addressed or in a very careful way. I’ve talked about this in both Luz’s character finish and in how Vee kind of fucked Luz’s character by being such a good contrast to her. Speaking of, Vee is EASILY the biggest opportunity for something special but only if she’s willing to actually go against losing the life she’s gained. This is the first life that has been anywhere close to hers after all and having to restart for the girl who ran away would theoretically be crushing for her. But it would have to have a character actually criticize and stay with that criticism of Luz. Or more likely just have an episode where Masha and co find out what Vee is so Vee can keep her friends between forms because that’s easier to do. It also would have made another argument for Luz going back to the Isles because Luz just existing in the human realm is now fucking someone over. Vee covering up Luz’s disappearance also makes any inclusion of government agents like what Amphibia did for human realm stakes much harder because there’s no reason for anyone to be on alert in anyway like when Anne arrived but not her friends. And because I’ve covered everyone else: Hunter has slice of life potential because he still needs to actually become friends with everyone else, Huntlow probably would have a confession happen when he died because it could be built up and frankly it’s very likely that Hunter would feel like the main character of the first of S3 just because he’s simply the character with ANY real potential to do anything. And if you’re thinking “Well, the human realm itself can provide angst and slice of life oppurtunities”, we run into how S2 assassinated the identity of the Isles. After all, in S1 the main point of friction between Luz and the Isles wasn’t that it had magic, its magic effectively replaces technology, but that the Isles was crueler. The laws were more about conformity in a society that was actively hostile to each other than anything else. S2 has shit like “Child Endangerment Laws” and in general just makes the Isles feel like the fantasy complaint of “It’s our world but with more teeth!” So the first half of S3 from a conceptual standpoint is just kind of fucked. You don’t have a villain that can be around much. Your main other option is a gag. Your characters have limited opportunities for growth or challenges because you haven’t given them enough attention or actively sabotaged what potential they did have. You also essentially have to entirely change the format of the show because the new environment offers no threats so you have to lean into pure slice of life and comedy and comedy has been a common weakness for this show. Especially in the specials, it’s often effectively anonymous. Just point and laugh at someone obviously dumb or doing something wrong. ALL the comedy for Amity in S3 feels nothing like Amity, has no logic to it and could be done by anyone else. It’s done by Amity just because she needs to literally do SOMETHING as Luz’s girlfriend but at this point has nothing to contribute besides “Look at me now being comic relief.” This happened to Lilith too so it’s not just a S3 problem and Gus has ALWAYS suffered from being treated more as a joke, especially in S1, than an actual character. But hey, after they get through the portal, they now have the Collector, the Hexide Rebellion and the coven heads to deal with. Actually, scratch that last one. After all, there’s literally no reason for the Collector to be using the coven heads at all and we genuinely have zero explanation, outside of Raeda angst, as to why Darius or Raine are puppets but TERRA ISN’T. Or wasn’t. So we Kikimora and the Collector. Aaaaand scratch the Collector as well. You can’t have the Collector interacting with Luz and company because then his redemption would come too soon or the fact that he is so much more powerful than ANYONE becomes a problem for why they aren’t being turned into puppets. So your narrative potential for a half a season in the Boiling Isles comes down to Eda and Lilith, the Hexide rebellion (most of whom haven’t mattered in over a season at this point), trying to figure out how to free King and stuff with King and the Collector. Now that is actually enough to fill half a season. There is a major problem though. After all... The Collector needs to be redeemed at the end of that season and the last time we saw him before this, he potentially threatened to murder the Hexide Squad so he could play tag. That’s even more of drastic starting point than Hunter had as the Golden Guard. And reminder: Despite Hunter having effectively all of S2 to have his arc... It’s not a good arc. I would argue it’s not an arc. And Hunter had 6 episodes of S2, many of which were ONLY his stuff for the whole episode and he was able to interact with the entire cast. In order for the Collector to still be the dramatic finale, he cannot interact with the cast. He can only interact with King. And King has always been one note through the entire series, usually discarding one note for the next so they’re not getting full episodes. At literal best, the Collector could get 8 half episodes and then a two part finale.Buuuut then we get the problem the Collector had in the second special: The more time you spend with him, the more you humanize him, the less tension there is about the resolution. It becomes increasingly obvious that he’ll be redeemed and redeemed villains can’t actually harm the main characters because then it becomes harder and harder for the audience to forgive them. It’s part of why Zuko being 98% a bastard in the first season of Avatar is important to narrative tension. Not only did it allow him to be a good, early antagonist but it also made it hard to believe that he could turn good. His decision to go back to the fire nation kept that up. Kept you guessing and also allowed AMAZING character as to what was actually important to him. This is why his turn in season 3 is so powerful because you could never be 100% certain until it finally clicked and even then, you understood everything that he was giving up and all the reasons why he would and so even if you doubted, like the characters do, you believe it as an audience and are ready to see him work for forgiveness. There could never be satisfaction like that with the Collector. Going “He’s a child!” forgets the fact that the Titan who imprisoned him has also likely been dead for THOUSANDS of years. Bare minimum, he’s been trapped in his prison for over 400 years. The other Collector we see in Knock Knock Knocking is taller, yes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Collector is a child. He simply has a childish personality and outlook on the world which is part of what makes him a terrifying final threat if he were an actual threat. Just because he looks and acts like a child doesn’t mean he is. A lot of that is likely to just use base, human instincts to pave over the fact that an audience wouldn’t accept the arc he’s undergone if he looked like an adult. So the finale is fucked, the first half is shaky narratively but could at least be enjoyable, what about the filler of S3B? Well, little of it could actually progress anything because how do you beat a god? And even if they find a solution, the more that it’s telegraphed that the Collector will be redeemed means the less a solution is necessary so it’s just killing time. So all you have left is dealing with Kikimora and Boscha as antagonists, both of whom have been jokes for over a season, WELL over a season for Boscha, by the time any of this would be happening. It’s even unclear as to what else they could be fighting or doing because how much did the Collector actually change things?

This is why I say The Owl House wanted five seasons, not three, and only could have made this worked if guaranteed from go. That’s the only way the writers would have known they had enough time to properly build up elements into the statements they wanted, at least with the skill and lack of focus they have, and been able to make villains that could be stepping stones up to the Collector while making the finale not feel pointless because the ending was made obvious. And even then, that’s putting a LOT of faith into writers who have the attention spans of goldfish sometimes and a show runner who actively undermines her own world building for the sake of whatever idea or subversion or meta text that she wants to make. But, being fair... A full S3 could have at least been fun. At least properly dealt with some of these issues to make it so Luz didn’t claim she was going to break up with Amity through portal closure and never address it. To make it cute, charming, creative... But those aren’t elements that the show has often been celebrated for. It made too many characters plot devices. It made too many of them one note. It made too many into comic relief. It didn’t put enough thought into its magic or worlds. A lot of what it does is cribbing from better fantasy that knew what it was doing. And I think in general, the longer the show has gone on, the worse and worse these fundamental flaws, flaws that damage the long term execution of something far more than the immediate statements it can make, have become obvious. It’s how a fully fledged, independent, amazing character like Amity is reduced almost entirely to just being Luz’s girlfriend even by the end of S2A. So no. I don’t think a full S3 would have suddenly turned the show into the next Avatar or the like where it becomes a cultural touchstone. And no, I don’t touch on changes to s2 because by the end of S2, for ANY of this to even FUNCTION, the Day of Unity still had to happen. So all the flaws of S2B, or damn near all of them, would still exist because Hunter still needs to be 90% done with his arc to be there to go to the human realm. Belos’ rushed and bad backstory still needs to happen in Hollow Mind. S2B still wasted almost two entire episodes for Elsewhere Elsewhen and Them’s the Breaks, Kid, both episodes where only one plot point in the whole damn thing matters and at best is character neutral for all involved, negative in some cases, including Belos. And Elsewhere Elsewhen only has an important plot point if you think Luz’s angst about helping Belos meet the Collector is warranted at all. Which, no, I argue it’s not. It is an inter-tangled mess that never wanted only three seasons and never was willing to change to fit the time it had. And frankly, I don’t blame Disney for shortening it with these facts in mind. For saying it was too expensive to produce, too complicated to air since it’s not random episode friendly and too scatterbrained to be properly serialized and so they wanted this done. They wanted to be done with it. And since a full S3 couldn’t make it better, why not go with specials and save everyone some money and time then? Which is mean but with the product we got and the fact that TOH can only be claimed as somewhat more successful than Amphibia, a much more cohesive, much more television friendly show, why should a business have decided to dedicate more time to The Owl House? It’s realistic and unfortunate and I would love to be kinder. But my mind likes facts too much and the fact is that The Owl House had an amazing start which it simply didn’t have the planning or focus to make into a great series overall. All we could ask for was the ride to be enjoyable and that’s going to be up to you. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join! I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat. And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[yelena-bellova]

Instinct: Din Djarin x F!Reader - Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen: A New Journey

Plot: Din and Y/n begin their quest to find both Jedi and Mandalorians.

Warnings: canon typical violence, hints of fluff

Word Count: 5.2k

A/N: We’re back!! I’m trying to finihs up the series by the time s3 comes out, but no promises with how my life goes from calm ot chaotic so quick. This is very much a filler chapter, the story gets going soon though, so hang tight. Hoep you enjoy!!

——————————

Along with our quest to find Jedi, we were also searching for the Mandalorians.

The Armorer hadn’t been much help, only saying that some may have escaped Nevarro and gone off world. The galaxy was wide and we had to try and narrow it down.

Din, the kid and I disembarked the Crest on some dark and dank planet I couldn’t remember the name of. Din had gotten word that there was an Abyssin with information on a rogue Mandalorian.

It was the strangest family outing ever.

We traipsed through the alley, the child floating in his pram and taking in the scenery. He seemed to be adapting to our vagabond way of life. He wasn’t turned off at all by the glowing red eyes of creatures unknown, which felt mildly concerning…

We walked with our eyes trained ahead, but I felt Din’s glove brush my hand. He tapped out our signal, two beats against my palm. It worked as a code of sorts in different situations. Today, it was a comforting gesture.

We approached the building we’d been told we’d find our contact in, the doors were guarded by a Twi’lek male. Din and I approached as equals, but I let him do the talking.

“We’re here to see Gor Koresh,”

The Twi looked us over before opening the door, “Enjoy the fight.”

Din stepped in first, I let the child’s pram pass me before bringing up the rear. We descended into the madness that was the arena, a Gamorrean fight serving as the main attraction. Rowdy crowds surrounded the ring, gamblers betting away their lives. It felt scummy enough to remind me of Guild hideouts.

Din led us to a few empty seats, next to an Abyssin who matched Gor Koresh’s description. We sat down, first row to the fight that was getting uglier with each passing second.

“You know this is no place for a child,” Koresh commented.

“Wherever we go, he goes,” Din replied.

“So I’ve heard,” Koresh looked me over, “Your woman might have been more comfortable waiting in the ship.”

“I’m fine where I’m at,” I said, keeping my tone even. It would always be a man’s galaxy.

“We’ve been quested with bringing the child back to his kind,” Din turned the conversation around, “If we can locate other Mandalorians, they can help guide us. I’m told you know where to find them.”

Koresh shook it off, “It’s uncouth to talk business immediately. Just enjoy the entertainment.”

Fights as a performance had always seemed barbaric to me. I’d picked up plenty of bounties at them throughout the years and had never seen the appeal. Apparently, I was the only one who held that opinion. The child cooed at my side when one Gamorrean made a particularly nasty swing. Yeah, I thought, he’s getting way too comfortable with all this…

“Bah!” Koresh exclaimed, “My Gamorrean’s not doing well. Kill him! Finish him,” he turned, “Do you gamble, Mando?”

I chuckled, we’d need something to gamble away to even answer.

“Not when it can be avoided,” Din replied.

“Well, I’ll bet the information you seek that this Gamorrean’s going to die within the next minute and a half. And all you have to do is put up in exchange is your shiny Beskar armor.”

I leaned forward, “And that’s fair how?”

“If you’re looking for fair, sweetheart,” Koresh said, “You’re on the wrong rock.”

“We’re prepared to pay you for the information,” Din got us back on track, knowing I’d have pushed the ‘sweetheart’ comment, “I’m not leaving our fate up to chance.”

Koresh leaned closer to Din, “Nor am I.”

He reached into his cloak and pulled out a blaster, firing a shot at one of the Gamorreans. The crowd exclaimed and ran for the exit at the same time three men behind us rose and pointed their blasters at my and Din’s necks. We didn’t move.

“Thank you for coming to me,” Koresh chuckled, “Normally, I have to seek out remnants of you Mandalorians in your hidden hives to harvest your precious shiny shells. Beskar’s value continues to rise. I’ve grown quite fond of it. Give it to me now or I’ll peel it off your corpse,” Koresh’s eyes flicked over to me, “And I might let you keep your girl.”

The whole thing would have bothered me a lot more if Din and I hadn’t planned for betrayal.

“Tell us where the Mandalorians are,” he said confidently, “And we’ll walk outta here without killing you.”

“I thought you said you weren’t a gambler.”

My hand twitched with anticipation.

Mando’s flicked his wrist, activating the Whistling Birds.

The child reached over the side of the pod and closed it.

“I’m not.”

Din sent the Whistling Birds into the chests of Koresh’s men, the shock giving us time to get to our feet. I pulled my new, significantly longer, vibroblade from my gauntlet and sliced one of their throats. Mando kicked the kid’s pod away from the action before diving back in.

One of the benefits I had discovered about having Jedi powers was my heightened senses. I could feel everything going on around me without ever seeing it. I’d always thought I just had good instincts, now I knew it was a special skill. Behind me, I could sense the remaining Gamorrean coming for Din. As he ducked out of the way, I fired at the Gamorrean to make sure he stayed down.

The Twi’lek guard put Din in a tight hold, while another patron handled his front. While he escaped the Twi’s arms, I stabbed my Vibroblade through the other attacker’s shoulder. I used his shock against him and wrenched him backwards before kicking him against the ring. Din was handling another one of Koresh’s men, it was almost too easy.

The guy I’d just taken out rose, blood running down his arm from the wound. He came at me with fists raised, I ducked and swerved to the side. Carefully, I led him backwards and just as he was about to throw a punch, I dropped to the floor so his hand hit the metal wall behind us. He screamed, giving me the opportunity to leap onto a bench and launch myself onto his shoulders. I squeezed his throat until his airways constricted and once his knees hit the ground, I tuck and rolled off and landed a kick to his head.

Din was to the side of me, fighting off the last two still standing. As the final one approached, the two of us each withdrew our blades and flung them in perfect synchronization.

“Glad we practiced,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

A noise at the door made us both turn, Koresh was trying to escape.

“You go,” I told Din, “We’ll bring up the rear.”

He strode out as if he had nowhere to be, his confidence in his abilities had bothered me when we first met. Now I loved it.

I walked over to the kid’s pod after retrieving our knives, opening up the hatch. He looked up at me as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

“We’re absolutely scarring you, aren’t we?”

The kid squeaked in response.

“You seem okay with it,” I shrugged, programming the function on my gauntlet Din had recently installed so the pram would follow me, “Let’s go find your dad.”

If Din would have been with us, he would have clenched up. I’d taken the Armorer’s words to heart and had begun calling us the child’s mother and father. Jokingly, of course, but I’d noticed that we both had settled into our new roles with ease. We were finally getting the hang of being “parents.”

I climbed the staircase out of the arena to find Din stringing Gor Koresh up on a lamppost.

“Stop,” Koresh relented, hanging upside down, “I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you where he is. You must give me your word that you won’t kill me.”

“I promise you will not die by my hand,” Din finally said, “Now where is the Mandalorian you know of?”

Koresh struggled, “Tatooine.”

“Huh?” I couldn’t help but say. Wouldn’t we have heard about it last time we were there?

“The Mando I know of lives on Tatooine,” Koresh stated again.

“I’ve spent much time on Tatooine, I have never seen a Mandalorian,” Din said.

“My information is good, I tell you,” Koresh grunted, “The city of Mos Pelgo, I swear it by the Gottra.”

Din and I shared a look, or rather, he caught my look. I only had to barely raise a shoulder and he knew we were in agreement.

“Tatooine it is then,” he said back to Koresh, leading our little party away from the Abyssin.

“Wait, Mando,” Koresh called, “You can’t leave me like this! Cut me down!”

Din didn’t break stride, “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Lady, are you gonna let him do this to me?”

“Oh, you were right,” I said, turning around to let him take in my innocent expression, “This is no place for a woman.”

Mando and I switched directions and he shot out the streetlight Koresh hung from, giving the red eyed creatures we’d seen earlier a late night meal.

“Your turn to pilot,” Din said casually.

“Nu-uh,” I replied, “I took over last night.”

“That was two nights ago.”

“Really?” I scrunched up my nose, “Huh, time flies, I guess.”

With the distant sounds of Koresh’s screams, we continued our conversation all the way back to the Crest.

—————————

By morning, we were on our way back to the desert.

I sat in the pilot’s chair, watching the stars streak past us in hyperspace. Flying had always seemed like a chore, until Din and I came together. Now even the simply act of flying through hyperspace was enjoyable.

Sometimes I couldn’t even recognize myself. A few months ago, I’d been content to never touch another person again. I’d sworn I was going to live and die on my own. Then Din came along, and then the kid. Now it was difficult to imagine my life without them. It was starting to become impossible.

“You throw on the landing gear?” Din asked, practically twitching from the co-pilot’s seat. We were nearing our destination.

I pursed my lips, trying to keep my tone even, “Yes.”

“Security protocols?”

“Mm-hmm.” I tried to put on a loving smile.

“Make sure that you tell them-“

I swung around in my seat, “Din, would you feel better if you landed us?”

“No,” he rushed out.

Turning back to the control board, I smirked, “In that case, I actually hadn’t thrown on the landing gear yet.”

The leather of his gloves strained and I smiled bigger.

I did, indeed, get us there in one piece. Peli’s hanger was open and we were permitted to land there. Din settled the kid in a satchel and slung it over his body. It warmed my heart to see him a little more relaxed, a little softer. When he was done, he came and put a hand on my shoulder, digging his fingers in and rubbing.

We had established a rule in both our professional and personal partnership. No affection could be shown outside of the Crest. If people saw us as anything but associates, it would give them something to exploit. Any and all affection between us was saved for the cockpit or our bunk.

We disembarked the Crest and entered the familiar hanger we’d only last seen a few weeks ago. Despite it being Tatooine, I didn’t feel the need to keep one hand on my blade. We were among friends.

“Come on!” I heard Peli before I saw her, “You know he doesn’t like droids.”

“May as well let them have at it,” Din said, “The Crest needs a good once-over.

I raised an eyebrow at him and I think he purposefully didn’t turn. Then again, he didn’t have to explain to me why his stance on droids had changed.

“Oh, so he likes droids now,” Peli said for us both before directing her droids around, “Well, you heard him. Give it a once-over.”

As we got closer, I could see her eyeing both our persons. “Well, I guess a lot had changed since you two were last in Mos-“

Din flipped the satchel around to show the child. I liked to imagine he was smiling underneath his helmet as Peli excitedly reached for him.

“Oh! Thank the Force! This little thing has had me worried sick. Come here, you little womp rat,” she took the child, who was happily babbling, into her arms, “Looks like it remembers me. How much do you two want for him? Just kidding. But not really. You know if this thing ever divides or buds, I will gladly pay for the offspring.”

A loose hose hissed from the Crest.

“Hey!” Peli cried to the gonks, “Watch what you’re doing up there! He barely trusts your kind. You want to give all droids a bad name? Thank you!”

Din and I waited in humorous silence, we never had to do much talking around Peli. She did it all for us.

“We’re here on business,” Din explained, “We need your help.”

“Oh, then business you shall have,” she replied, “Care for me to watch this wrinkled critter while you two seek out adventure?”

If only you knew how much adventure we’d seen recently, I thought.

“We’ll keep you posted on that one,” I said, “We’ve been tasked with getting him back to his own kind.”

Ignore the little pain that comes with saying that, ignore…

“Oh, well, I can’t help you there,” Peli scoffed, “I’ve never seen any like it. And trust me, I’ve seen all shapes and sizes in this town.”

“A Mandalorian armorer has set us on our path,” Din continued for me, “If we can find one of my kind, we can chart a path through the network of coverts.”

Peli shrugged, “You’ve been the only Mando here for years from what I can tell.”

“We’ve got reliable intel that there’s one in Mos Pelgo,” I continued, “We searched every map possible, nothing came up.”

“Oh. Boy,” Peli exhaled, “Haven’t heard that name in a while. It was wiped out by bandits. Once the Empire fell, it was a free-for-all. I didn’t dare leave the city walls. Still don’t.”

Sighing, I looked up at Din. “We don’t have much of a choice,” I replied, “Where’s the body?”

“Normally, I’d charge for the information, but,” Peli tucked a rogue corner of the kid’s robe into place, “House discount. R-5! Bring the map of Tatooine!”

The astromech chugged along at its own speed. “No, seriously. Take your time,” Peli huffed, “You just can’t get good help these days. I don’t even know who to complain to.”

I stifled a chuckle as she continued to lambast the droid. If I’d have had any semblance of a normal life, I could have been perfectly content working alongside her in the hanger.

“Okay,” Peli started as the droid projected the map in front of us, “This is a map of Tatooine before the war. You got Mos Eisley, Mos Espa,” she moved the holo to a completely bare part of the planet, “And around this region is Mos Pelgo.”

“I don’t see anything,” Din said.

“Well, it’s there,” she replied, “Or at least it used to be. Not much to speak of. It’s an old mining settlement. They’re going to see that big hunk o’ metal long before you land.”

A completely remote part of the planet couldn’t be inhabited by that many people, if any. Mandalorians were hunted so viciously, it made sense one would go to the furthest corner of the galaxy to remain undetected.

“You still have that speeder bike?” Din asked.

“Sure do,” Peli nodded, “It’s a little rusty, but I got it.”

Once she found it and dusted it off for us, I got the child’s adjusted on the back of the bike. When I reached over to grab the handles and take the front of the seat, I ended up holding a very familiar hand.

“I was going to drive,” I told Din.

“You drove last time we were here,” he replied, not stopping his check of the machinery.

“Yeah, technically the last ride we took, I was on a Bantha and you were leading,” I shot back, “My turn.”

Din said nothing as he continued to fiddle with a few knobs. He was a control freak to the highest degree.

Rolling my eyes, I relented. “Fine,” I swung my leg over the bike and wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing myself to him, “I’m actually getting the better end of the deal.”

I didn’t have to see him to know comments like that added a twinge of pink to his cheeks.

“And when will you two be back?” Peli asked loudly, hands on her hips, “I like you and all, but renting space ain’t free.”

We had no timeline, no semblance of a timeline, not even a thought of one. “Hopefully within a day,” I answered, regardless, “Maybe two. With payment.”

She gave us a once over before nodding and rubbing the kid’s ear as she walked away.

“Ready?” Din asked over his shoulder.

I tightened my hold on him, “Let’s ride.”

With that, we were off.

————————————

The journey to Mos Pelgo was tiring, even if all we were doing was riding. The dunes were dizzying after a while, the sun was scorching and stray grains of sand were lodged in my eyes.

The kid, on the other hand, was loving every minute of it.

Din convinced me it was a good idea to camp with the same Tuskens we’d met the last time we were across the Dune Sea. He could sign enough to communicate that we were just trying to pass and wanted no fight with them. That was enough to be let into their clan for one night.

I admired that as hardened and war scarred as he was, softness surrounded Din. He was diplomatic in a way that most hunters weren’t. He took his time with people. His heart, no matter how protected by Beskar, bled nothing but love. As we settled in to sleep against our bike, I pressed a kiss to the side of his helmet. Where I would have been chastised for such a public display of affection, he simply lowered his gaze and wrapped an arm around me.

The next day, following Peli’s exact coordinates, we made it to Mos Pelgo. It was a dreary little town that couldn’t have housed more than maybe thirty people. Still, a decent place for a rogue Mandalorian to be hiding.

I parked the bike outside of what looked like the cantina, hopping off with Din and striding up the steps. The child would naturally follow us.

Inside were only one or two afternoon patrons, along with a bartender. “Can I help you two?” He asked.

“I’m looking for a Mandalorian,” Din said at the counter.

“Well, we don’t get many visitors in these parts, can you describe him?”

Din paused for half a second, “Someone who looks like me.”

“Mmm,” the bartender hummed, “You mean the Marshal?”

“Your Marshal’s a Mandalorian?” I asked in disbelief.

The bartended nodded toward where our backs were turned, “See for yourself.”

Din and I turned to see a male figure, tall and confidant, standing in the doorway. Dressed in old, rusty, Mandalorian armor.

“What brings you here, strangers?” He asked, his true voice hidden by the modulator.

“We’ve been searching for you for many parsecs,” Din answered, this was his business to handle.

The new Mandalorian stepped forward, “Well, now, you found me. Weequay, three snorts of Spotchka,” he took the jug from the bartender, along with the glasses, and headed for a table. “Why don’t we have a drink?”

Now THIS I’d love to see, I thought, they really forget the helmets are there, don’t the-

My thoughts were interrupted by the hissing of the new Mando taking off his helmet. It revealed a handsome, middle aged, bearded man. The shock washed over Din and I.

“I’ve never met a real Mandalorian,” the man started, “Heard stories. I know you’re good at killing. And probably none too happy to see me wearing the hardware.”

Not too happy? He’s gonna tear every last shred off your body, leave a tip, and walk out like nothing happened…

“So,” the imposter kept talking as he poured glasses of Spotchka, “I figure only one of us walking out of here,” he held up a hand to me, “Ladies not included, of course,” he turned back to Din, “But then I see this little guy…”

I whipped my head around to see the child, peering into a spittoon.

“And I think, maybe I pegged you wrong.”

Din finally gathered the presence of mind to speak, “Who are you?”

“I’m Cobb Vanth,” he introduced, “Marshal of Mos Pelgo.”

“Where’d the armor come from?” I asked, unable to contain my curiosity any longer.

“Bought it off some Jawas.”

“Hand it over,” Din ordered, his voice like steel.

Vanth smiled, as if the whole exchange was amusing. “Look, pal, I’m sure you call the shots where you come from. But ‘round here, I’m the one tells folks what to do.”

Internally, I cringed. That response wasn’t going to fly…

“Take it off,” Din took a menacing step forward, “Or I will.”

Vanth looked over to the spittoon, “We gonna do this in front o’ the kid?”

The child cooed from behind me as if to give his approval. We had definitely messed him up.

“He’s seen worse,” Din replied, unphased by anything the guy could throw at him. He had tunnel vision when it came to his religion.

“Right here, then?”

“Right here.”

I was calculating how long it would take for my knife to reach Vanth if he raised his gun. Could I make the shot that fast? Or was I better off using one of my blasters and saving the one strapped across my back for if things got really ugly?

The three of us stood in a triangle, hands hovering over our weapons. Tension mounted by the second, my heart thudded in my chest as I waited for Vanth to make the slightest move.

The ground shook under us suddenly, drawing our focus away. Vanth held up a finger and an eyebrow before heading out the door. Din and I wordlessly followed him.

The town had an alarm system set up, a blare echoed down the main path. Citizens ran for cover, diving into any building that would give them shelter. If Vanth wasn’t moving, I had to assume we were safe where we were.

The sand began to sink in on itself and it wasn’t long before a set of scales made itself visible through it. Whatever creature it was swam through the middle of the town as if it knew the way. On its way out, it swung out from under the sand and swallowed up a Bantha, whole.

Then it was on its way.

Words failed me as we stood in silence. What were you supposed to say to something like that?

“Maybe we can work something out,” Vanth said, turning on his heel and heading back into the bar.

Din and I had a delayed reaction, glancing to one another before following him in.

I let Din take over talking with the Marshal and I went to retrieve the kid. He peeked out from inside the spittoon, having taken shelter there during the monster’s attack. I grimaced, that was going to equal a bath once we were back on the Crest.

“Come on,” I coaxed, helping pull him out, “You’re okay.”

As soon as his feet hit the floor, he was seeking comfort against my leg. I bent down to rub his head, despite his well-adjustment to our chaotic life, he was still just a baby.

We caught up with Din and Vanth outside, scoping out the town post-attack. The citizens were lifting evaporators and generators that had fallen and sweeping sand off their decks. They didn’t seem phased by it. As if this were a normal series of events.

“That creature’s been terrorizing these parts since long before Mos Pelgo was established,” Vanth explained, “Thanks to this armor, I’ve been able to protect this town from bandits and Sand People. They look to me to protect ‘em. But a Krayt Dragon is too much for me to take on alone.”

He paused, thinking his next words over. “Help me kill it, I’ll give you the armor.”

Din looked to me, I felt it was less to see how I felt and more of a check to see how annoyed I’d be when he agreed. Knowing how much the armor meant to him, I wasn’t going to raise a fuss.

“Deal,” he confirmed, “We’ll ride back to our ship, blow it out of the sand from the sky. We’ll use the bantha as bait.”

Vanth shook his head, “Not so simple. The ship passes above, it senses vibrations, stays underground.”

“So we’re going at it on foot?” I raised an eyebrow, maybe the armor wasn’t that important…

“I’ll let you scope the place out,” Vanth said, “I know where it lives.”

“How far?” Din asked.

“Not far.”

—————————

On our way to the creature’s hideout, Vanth entertained us with the story of how the Mando armor came to be his. He explained that after the second Death Star blew up, the Mining Collective moved in on Mos Pelgo. During a near-deadly shootout, Vanth was able to escape into the Tatooine desert. He wandered for days until a Jawa Sandcrawler found him, bringing him aboard and giving him food and water. When they discovered he was carrying Silicax crystals, they offered him any of their treasures in exchange for them. His eye caught the armor, thinking he could use it to run the Collective out of town, and asked for it. Sure enough, he rid Mos Pelgo of all crime and had carried on the same ever since.

In my mind, it was alright that at least he was using the armor for something good. Wearing Mando gear wasn’t anything I ever wanted, but if I’d have been in Vanth’s position, I wouldn’t have chosen any different. Din didn’t seem to take too much objection with it either.

Vanth guided us through one of the canyons until he came to a quick stop. Not too distantly, there was growling. Din and I took up our weapons and kneeled behind the bike. From behind the rocks of the canyon, a herd of massifs approached. Looking particularly unhinged, I was ready to fire, but Din gently pushed my gun down.

The noise that followed was…unprecedented.

Din shouted in Tuskan, drawing both mine and Vanth’s eye.

“What the hell you doin’?” Our companion asked for us both.

Din only held up a hand as he approached the animals. I prayed that whatever he was doing would save us so I got the chance to live and tease him about it forever.

He kept speaking until one playfully charged towards him. Din kneeled down and gave it a rub, having diffused all the tension.

Tuskens came out from behind the rocks, their body language wasn’t threatening on account of hearing their language spoken. Din began to converse with them while Vanth and I stood together, ready to point and kill at a second’s notice.

“Please tell me he knows what he’s doing,” he whispered under his breath.

“Trust him,” I said, the suspicion in my voice cancelling out my words, “Mando?”

Din looked over his shoulder, “They want to kill the krayt dragon too.”

“Well,” I sighed, slinging my gun over my back, “Lucky for us.”

————————————

Din ended up getting us an invitation to camp with the Tuskens for the night. Their cordiality continued to surprise me, considering their particularly aggressive reputation. But if we didn’t have a problem with them, they didn’t have one with us.

We (Din) held a conversation around a bonfire around dusk. I couldn’t speak Tusken, but I could tell from their signing that they were discussing the dragon. At one point, Vanth got offered one of their black melons. In the spirit of diplomacy, I had choked one down.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” He asked.

“You drink it,” Din answered.

“It stinks.”

“Yes, it does,” I replied, nearly gagging at the scent again, “Bottoms up.

“Do you want their help?” Din asked.

“Not if I have to drink this,” Vanth shook his head.

The Tusken to our right had picked up on Vanth’s tone and began to speak, raising its hands in outrage.

“He says your people steal their water, and now you insult them by not drinking it,” Din translated as the Tusken continued, “They know about Mos Pelgo. They know how many Sand People you killed.”

Vanth wasn’t having any of it, “They raided our village. I defended the town.”

“Calm down,” I held out a hand, peace needed to be kept.

“I knew this was a bad idea,” Vanth scowled.

“You’re agitating them,” Din warned.

“These monsters can’t be reasoned with…” Vanth got to his feet and got in the Tusken’s face, “Sit back down, before I put a hole through you!”

Din and I were up instantly, me pulling Vanth by the arm and him using his flame thrower to separate the two. Din took over speaking to the Tusken while Vanth shook off my hold.

“What are you telling them?” He asked.

“Same thing I’m telling you,” Din replied, “If we fight amongst ourselves, the monster will kill us all.”

Vanth glanced over to me, I only reenforced Din’s words with a nod. He sat back down.

“Now,” Din continued signing to the Tuskens, “How do we kill it?

He translated the Tusken’s grunts and informed us that in the morning, we’d set back out for where we’d met them. They would show us where exactly the creature lived and what we were up against. With the plan in place, we all settled around the fire, Vanth keeping one suspicious eye on our hosts until he physically couldn’t stay awake.

“This armor better be worth it,” I grunted as Din and I made ourselves semi-comfortable in the sand.

“If you want to go back, I won’t stop you,” he replied, “The Mandalorians are-“

I pressed a hand to the mouth of his helmet, as if it would do something. “We’re not doing this. Your fight is my fight. It would just be nice if we weren’t fighting a giant sand monster’s all I’m saying.”

Din laid down first and held out his arm, I tucked myself in next to him. We were breaking our no-contact rule, but it didn’t really matter anymore. Vanth was an ally, and even if he got himself in trouble, the Tuskens liked us. We could afford a little vulnerability. And once the kid slipped into my arms, everything turned from chaos to calm.

—————————

Instinct Taglist: @toribentleyvq @pan-ini @simp-for-corpse @spacedaddydinn @never-no-locomotive @cozyballofanxiety @miraculousreader @welcomethepedroverse @damerondala @x-judyjude-x @dindjarinsspouse @fishthemenace @aliyryun1401world @that-girl-named-alex @ssophiebirkas @jellybeanstacey0519 @elinedjarin @lycaonpictusphotography @morganlefaye13 @pancakefancake @eternallyvenus @kalea-bane

Din Djarin Taglist: @damerondala @x-judyjude-x @dindjarinsspouse @aliyryun1401world @elinedjarin @mads-weasley @kalea-bane

[vulpiximisa]

yuru camp s3

I was a big fan of the first season of Yuru Camp, and I think it was a beautiful thing if it had been a standalone season. I knew there was a second season when I finished watching S1, so I had no clue what they could have even done. S2 was fine in itself, just more of the girls doing their camping thing, mostly Nadeshiko’s adventures into solo camping. I like the series fine so it always baffles me to see how popular the girls are. 

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that there was a S3. I think the first time I saw the trailer I was turned off by the “new art style” which is supposed to be closer to the manga, I guess? But watching the actual episodes, I don’t think I noticed it too much. Mostly only Aki’s change in hair but that was relevant to the story. (And Ena’s hair too, but I’m just going to assume everyone’s hair got longer from the last time we saw them.) 

I didn’t watch it as it was airing because Yuru Camp was something I liked watching a few episodes together at a time so I waited until the season was done.

I thought the opening sequence was very nice, with the linelessness. I kind of groaned at seeing the new girls, which, later would eventually be their new club members, I guess. 

I was never a fan of Aya. I think she just felt a bit too normie to me. I would have preferred if they just kept her as Nadeshiko’s childhood friend from her old hometown. Not that I’m lowkey salty about Rin finding a biker girlfriend, I just think that just because the series is centered around This Thing, doesn’t mean Every Single Character has to be interested in The Thing. (White Sands of Aquatope, the chef girl eventually working at the aquarium.) I wouldn’t have minded if Aya and Rin bonded over biking and biking alone, and maybe eventually decided to join them in a camp (like Ena at the Christmas camp), but Aya was automatically interested and invested, even though she had no prior knowledge or interest. So even if the bridge tour and biking journey was a different sight, I just wasn’t invested because I didn’t like Aya.

And then the retelling of the OutDoo Club’s camping. I get that because it was a retelling, they can goof off and exaggerate as many details as they could, but I thought it was a bit too goofy for me and I would have liked to have seen it play at in real time, as is. I guess that’s just what I expect when I watch Yuru Camp, something chill and relaxing, not fourthwall breaking. 

So I appreciated the yard camp/literal sausage fest episode and Chiaki’s solo camp more than any of the camps they had shown. I think I prefer seeing the solo camp segments, so like Nadeshiko making the trip by herself using public transportation (and finding a new found obsession to old style trains) and any time Rin goes by herself. It’s more calming to me to see what the individual characters are thinking when they are by themselves. Aoi’s bike adventure was pretty interesting too since I don’t think we see a lot of her inside thoughts. 

The group sakura viewing camp felt too short for me. I thought we’d get more time on it since the end of the season camps are usually a big thing (Christmas, Izu) but it was like, half an episode. Maybe because we’ve already camped with everyone and everyone is acquainted, and they spent most of their time on their own only to finally gather to show off their own sakura experiences. 

Oh, I like Sakura (sis) fine and I think her and Nadeshiko are cute, but I think we spent a little too much time driving around with them. I guess it could be iyashi, but I came here for camp iyashi not driving iyashi. Maybe because I don’t drive, I romanticize public transportation more. Or even biking feels more romantic. 

Also the girls that would I suppose eventually become their new club members, I feel like they shouldn’t have been in the opening. I think if they kept it as the chance encounter with Ena, and then Ena seeing them at the beginning of the new school year, you can kind of make inferences and then we can actually see them when season 4 hits. 

Anyway, I guess I feel a little bad, but I didn’t get as much relaxing vibes as I had from the first two seasons. I rated this season as an Average Okay, while I remember giving S1 a solid 10/10, S2 an 8. (I gave it a 9?) Reading the MAL reviews, I’m not alone in rating it lower than the first two seasons, but also there was a change in studio? So I don’t know if I blame the events that occurred in S3 or the studio change, which means that the vibes are different? Anyway, while they’re here, I’ll take S4 if they give it to me.

[raayllum]

articulation of need: a rayllum meta

My brain was thinking over a few different but interrelated aspects of Rayllum’s dynamic, canon s1-s3, and Through the Moon, so a few disclaimers before we begin:

Neither half of a couple, nor Rayllum, are or can be mind readers! That’s not a fair expectation for anyone in any kind of relationship. These kiddos are just deeply in love, and traumatized, and doing their best. That goes for both of them in all ways. Furthermore, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t compatible, or that the way Callum expresses love for her is lesser than how she expresses love for him. 

This is just a small pattern in their dynamic extrapolated upon + some hopeful ideas of how S4 could resolve it, if it’s something canon has picked on as well. Also not a flaw of canon or Rayllum if they don’t, this is just me being an English major who thinks about these two kids and their all consuming love for each other way too often. Okay? Okay.

With that out of the way, let’s get into it. 

Today we’re gonna talk about Rayllum and how they express Need.

Short form: Callum expresses that he needs Rayla mostly through action. Rayla expresses that she needs him through both action but, predominantly, word. Now, this is different from the usual way they show love to one another. Callum is very heavy on words of affirmation (always complimenting her, etc.), and Rayla shows affection through both acts of service and physical touch, like all those shoulder touches in season two and handholds in season three. But that’s the key difference: affection versus need.

So, let’s begin.

Precedent 

There is a pattern, however slight, of Rayla and Callum expressing their feelings for each other in ways we wouldn’t quite expect. Callum is talkative and open, with lots of words of affirmation for his loved ones: “Well you seem pretty great too,” “Every team needs good support,” “I am so proud of you,” and basically everything he’s ever said about Rayla. Rayla, meanwhile, is much more Moonshadow, doing lots of acts of service (aka every favour she does for Callum) and through physical touch / being a more overt protector. But when it comes to the development of their romantic relationship, the seeds of it are planted in the opposite manner we’ve come to expect.

Callum is quietly drawing her and holding things to his chest while he privately works it out.

Rayla is the one making first moves and talking too much, a lovable, flustered train wreck for anyone (and especially Callum) to see.

This goes back to the idea that Callum has a fantastic memory for spells, able to recall ones he saw only once very easily, due to their tie to art. But Rayla is the one who remembers exactly what people have said to her, even if they don’t; words haunt her in ways they don’t haunt Callum. (The only time we see him harken back to something that has already been said is with Harrow and Ezran regarding Sarai, and then Harrow’s death). For example:

And last but not least, the famous 2x07 scene contrasted with 1x02, where at the time we thought nothing was really getting through to Rayla, and it turned out that everything was. 

We even see this directly contrasted in early season one in regards to magic. Callum can’t remember what Claudia was saying, even though he was there for the spell, and she only got slightly cut off when it came to fulminus. But Rayla, through a little prior knowledge and word association, is able to realize that it wasn’t fool Claudia was saying, but fulminus. 

But why does all of this Matter, you ask? Well, here’s the thing...

Callum has never said he needs Rayla. Not the way she has repeatedly with him. And this shows up in a few ways, so without further ado, let’s shift from the precedent to the present.

Heartfelt Speeches

2x09, 3x01, 3x04, and 3x05 are the Heartfelt Speeches for these two, when it comes to getting all swept up in their feelings and affection for each other. So let’s put these four speeches, two each (and each pair a day apart from one another, in canon timeline) back to back and see the commonalities, shall we?

R: Callum, wake up! You’ve got to stay with me! Oh, Callum. Please come back. It doesn’t matter what you did before, I just want you to be okay again. Callum! I can’t lose you like this, you mean too much to me! Callum, I... I—

R: I agree with you, Sol Regem. Some humans are evil. But not this one. Not Callum. The only reason the Dragon Prince is alive is because of this human. He left his home and his family to save the egg, and he sacrificed everything so Azymondias could be born. He’s noble, and true. When we met, he could’ve had me captured or killed. But he didn’t. Because without knowing me or anything about me, he saw past human hatred, and did what he knew was right. He’s smart and kind and brave and he’s... My friend. My best friend. So please, allow him to pass into Xadia and help me take the Dragon Prince home. Because I don’t think I can do it without him.

Now, let’s look at Callum’s heartfelt, swooning speeches concerning Rayla.

C: You’re too good to feel this bad about yourself. I know that and you should know that. You have true courage and a big heart. I’ve seen you get knocked down so many times before, and every single time you get up again. That’s real strength. And... and you’re ten times funnier than any human I know. See? See, you know you’re amazing. You’re smart, and fast, and beautiful. Rayla, you’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.

C: It’s because Rayla is a hero. Rayla’s brave. She saves people. Even when it puts her own life in danger and even when the odds seem impossible. Even when it means her own people might misunderstand and turn against her. Rayla is selfless, strong, and caring. That’s what makes her a hero. That’s what makes her Rayla.

Now look at the bolded, and look at how Callum’s speeches aren’t bolded at all. Can you tell what the difference is? Rayla’s speeches — pleas, really, for Callum’s life — are equally as complimentary as Callum’s in some ways in 3x01, but she also adds and keeps circling back to something that Callum never does. Rayla admits, out loud, to herself, Callum, and Sol Regem, that she needs him. 

The root of Callum’s speeches is admiration for her, explaining how he sees her, and why she should think better of herself. He loves and admires her kindness first and foremost, closely followed by her bravery and resilience, all qualities he thinks make her heroic. Now, Callum deserves credit where credit is due. His speech in 3x04 is particularly perfect and all things Rayla desperately needs to hear, while he also delicately dismantles so much of her verbal self loathing (even down to small things, like concern over her appearance; meta here). Nor does Callum viewing Rayla, rightfully, as a hero means he thinks she doesn’t also need help or needs to be saved sometimes; if anything, it’s the opposite.

But Callum’s speeches are about admiration and love, not need. See the difference? He’s not saying that he needs her, or that he can’t lose her, or that he can’t do this without her. But Rayla is, she continually does.

And we see this sort of pattern follow them into

Through the Moon

TTM is an inherently cyclical work, specifically about the patterns Callum and Rayla have formed with each other, and based off their parents’ relationships. Rayla follows in Runaan’s footsteps, leaving her lover behind and believing the fault is all in her. Callum follows arguably in his mother’s footsteps, supportive of a plan he doesn’t 100% approve of. However, we see the exact some precedent and pattern from the show follow them into TTM regarding need.

Now, by the time TTM rolls around, Callum has expressed that he needs Rayla, very clearly, in action. Following her down in 2x07 and risking himself by doing dark magic; jumping off the Pinnacle at just the slimmest chance of saving her in 3x09. We see this exact type of devotion play out again in TTM when he follows her into the Nexus and prepares to help her hunt down Viren, even if Callum still isn’t convinced (and understandably so) that Viren is actually alive.

Rayla is the one who consistently says, however, that Callum shouldn’t risk himself. Not even on her behalf. Callum worries about her, yes — god does he worry — but ultimately, Callum has only ever said, “Let me come with you.” He never outright says to her that the risk isn’t worth it, or that she shouldn’t do something dangerous without ultimately folding.

And again, Callum’s reactions and choices and relenting all make sense! He’s giving her agency, or feels helpless, or in 3x01′s scenario, literally does not have almost any other choice. He’s doing it out of respect, and because he knows Rayla. Even if it’s not her responsibility, she feels like it is, and Callum does his best to support her through it. To stand by her. But Rayla has a very different approach when it comes to prioritizing Callum’s safety and emotions, largely above all else.

C: There’s something after us! R: [Hanging up, unfurling her blades] Keep running.

R: Callum, Ezran, go.  C: But— R: Just keep it safe. R: Or it’ll blow you up until you’re dead. [...] If you die out there, I swear I’ll kill you!

C: In the end, I didn’t have the guts. R: Good.

R: It’s okay, Callum. I’m not asking you to come with me.

C: Getting Zym to Xadia is all that matters [Rayla reluctantly agrees] I’ll go back home VS If me dying is the only way for you and Zym to get across safely, then it’s time for me to meet the end. R: Calm down.

R: Okay, let’s do this. Just one more thing — I go into the portal alone [...] You said it was dangerous, I’m not going to risk both of us.

R: What are you doing here? Now we’re both trapped!

R: No! I’m going alone. Viren has taken away everyone I love — everyone except you. I can’t risk you coming with me.

We see this time and time again when Rayla puts Callum above the mission and her better judgement. Offering to go back into the tower in 1x03, going to the Banther Lodge and still getting the cube even if her life is now in danger in 1x04, wanting to tell Callum the truth so badly in 1x06 even if the egg is at risk, staying extra days at the Nexus in 2x01, allowing Claudia and Soren an inch in 2x02, putting herself on the ground and the boys safely on Phoe-Phoe in 2x03, saying that Callum doing dark magic doesn’t matter in 2x09, grabbing him instead of Zym in 3x01, etc. Rayla needs Callum, and we know this because she says it out right — in spite of trying to be independent her whole life in order to not need anyone — and because of TTM, where she leaves him because she needs him alive more than she wants to be happy with him. She’s asked him to stay in the past, but she can’t bring herself to do it now, because she feels too much like a liability.

However, the closest Callum ever comes to asking her to stay is in 3x08, but he never says the actual thing. Callum doesn’t really actually talk about how he feels during their argument in 3x08. He’s just guessing (or stabbing) at how Rayla feels: “You’re going to stay here and die out of pride? Honour, ‘redemption,’ it’s just pride!” “I know you feel guilty, but you’re not thinking straight!”

Callum doesn’t say “I need you,” or “I don’t want to lose you,” or anything along those lines, even if we know he’s feeling all those things. (Again, action over word). In many ways, it’s a perfect parallel as to why he gets pissed off at her in 1x06, when she’s the one dodging her feelings about their dynamic and focusing on his and the political. In some ways, this is communicated through his devotion to her. It’s not as though Callum doesn’t prioritize Rayla, he absolutely does. And Rayla absolutely needs someone who stays and runs after her, given everything in her history, culture, and personality. It’s already been a transformative, radical relationship for her, after being abandoned both short term and long term by her family before. She’s never had someone who stays, before. But I also think she needs Callum to ask her to stay.

Consequences

TTM comes closest. “I couldn’t lose you” and “I made the biggest mistake of my life, I could have lost you” are close to being “I need you” and “I need you to stay.” But it’s still buffered by an offer to come, to say that Rayla isn’t wrong to continually risk her life, just that Callum also deserves to be able to risk his life alongside her.

And again, I’m not going to say it’s bad writing if the show — or season four — never goes in this direction to rectify. TTM already had much more delicate work in regards to mental health and trauma than I was expecting the show or canon to have time for. A core part of the series is these kids taking a stand even if that means undertaking dangerous tasks;  you can’t have a story with heroes who go “Y’know, maybe I won’t try and stop the second coming of the most evil elf that’s ever existed.” 

But I do think it’d be very nice, and full circle, and important for Rayla to hear, from Callum, “It doesn’t always have to be you. You don’t have to sacrifice everything for everyone else. You think that you’re worth more than me and I can live without you, but that’s not true. I need you. I need you to stay,” given this pattern (mind you, possibly unintentional, but I don’t think so) set up in their dynamic.

Because that’ll be Rayla’s real test in season four. If and when Callum asks her to stay, can she say yes? Can she not only let Callum come with her, this time in life, but can she choose to stay with him through it all? Can she accept that someone needs her just as badly as she needs them?

Because I hope so. I really do.

[sarkywoman]

Glad that there’s going to be a season 4 of TUA, but knowing it’s the last one leaves me a bit low. I don’t think they have time to fix all they’ve broken in a satisfying way. If season 3’s anything to go by, they’ll just throw in all the tropes people beg for on Twitter and call it a day. The idea that there was a four season plan sits weird with me, because seasons 2 and 3 didn’t feel like anyone had a plan at all, more like they were floundering for what to do with the characters after a well-structured first season. Those seasons feel like more of a waste of time now that we know there’s only one season left. Like, character arcs? Barely there.

Luther finding a love outside of the house, allowing him to branch out and learn to be his own man - that would make sense as a resolution for S4 if S3 had focused more on the situation between him and Allison, which along with his trauma had been his story through S1/2. Instead S4 might just have him looking for Sloane, with the interesting parts of that relationship already done in S3.

Diego is ready to settle with Lila, for better or worse. That again is resolution territory, so they either scramble it to give him an unhappy ending, or they keep it mostly as is, making it uninteresting to watch as we’ve watched their relationship, such as it is, develop.

Allison. I mean… Allison. One of the strongest characters for two seasons, she started out in this interesting place of some self-awareness and trying to work on herself. Season 2 pushed her into a more difficult place for that and let us watch her under pressure and she shone. Season 3 said no growth here, only daughter trauma, that’s right she had a daughter remember, well now she has remembered too and she’s so mad she’s gonna sexually assault the man who loved her until he saw another pretty girl. So season 4 either gives her a redemption arc or leans into her being a bad guy. Honestly not sure either can make up for the loss of her complexity in season 3.

Klaus. Spent season 3 working on his powers and trying to find purpose, has now lost his powers and is in a new reality. I’m worried they’ll just drop his S3 development and bring in Dave (you know, that guy from the montage in S1 and the hate crime in S2) and say ‘look, the love of his life is back’ and half of fandom will eat that up as Good Television when it’s Klaus at his most boring. Dave was a prop, motivating Klaus. We shouldn’t need him anymore.

Where is Five even at now? Like, emotionally? His plot is the most consistent - I want to unite my family but instead it’s just one fucking thing after another. We’ve seen him persevere, we’ve seen him give up. Even if he gets a life, there’s the question of whether he could really adjust to that. I think the only lasting resolution for him would be giving up on the Hargreeves, which saddens me. And I don’t know how he’d fill that void. If the show didn’t plan an ending and just didn’t get renewed, this is the kind of question that could be avoided lol.

Ben. We now have two Bens to think of, the dead one and the live one. The canon of the dead Ben isn’t the same as the live one, so this Ben really only has one season’s worth of backstory and that simplifies his main arc - can he stop being an asshole and hang out with the umbrellas? I hope he can hang with them while being an asshole. I enjoyed him in S3. I guess show-wise the question is how much of dead Ben is in him, but I’m not sure that’s a useful avenue to go down as dead Ben didn’t get that much interaction with the others for the audience to have a point to measure new interactions against. Just Klaus really, which is why it makes sense to show those two together more.

Viktor. I feel like season two diverted them from their character arc, because we should have looked at the impact of the power revelations and the decisions made by the other Hargreeves in light of that. Instead we got amnesia. It was enjoyable enough, with Sissy and all, but there was no attempt to handle the baggage that already existed. Season 3 did a little better in that regard, with Five’s speech and the determination from Viktor to protect Harlan, then Viktor just sort of faded into the background as it went on, which was a big shame because that conversation with Marcus in the diner at the start was so badass I was screaming.

So in conclusion… yeah, they’re gonna drop the ball because they’ve barely held the ball for seasons 2 and 3. If they’ve been writing to a plan it’s a terrible plan. Each of the characters have a dynamic with each other to explore as well as self-contained issues to address and the surface has barely been scraped during the displacement of season two and the fanservice of season three.

I’m hoping to fly to America to watch it with a friend so like, I really hope it’s good, I just… see no evidence it would be. It’ll either be rushed or empty.

[blondehairstripe]

So I think that as of S3, Varian is crushing hard on Rapunzel. And in this case, it goes deeper than mere infatuation, given the nature of their relationship and everything that’s transpired between them within the series.

Read on for in-series analysis with screencaps and some bonus post-series fanon speculation!

IN-SERIES ANALYSIS

Before he went villain, I’d say that Varian’s feelings toward Rapunzel were more hero-worship, so he likely thought she was pretty, but undoubtedly out of his league and already taken to boot. No signs of crushing yet—he instead becomes infatuated with the only unattached person who came to visit him: Cassandra.

In my humble opinion, Varian didn’t have a romantic attraction to Rapunzel until it hit him like a bolt of lightning when she told him “It’s your mess, but it’s my kingdom” in Rapunzel’s Return.

Though he was oddly flirty with her while she was in that dungeon cell...

There is also the distinct possibility that the cell was where the first stirrings of a crush began to form during their reconnection. The basis for this theory comes from the absolutely adoring look he gave her when she said “we need him” and how he looked pretty well smitten as she pulled him along.

By the end of the episode Rapunzel frees Quirin, and hoo boy, is that the final nail in Varian’s coffin of feelings. She’d forgiven him his atrocities, kept her word, freed his father—honestly, it’d be weirder if he didn’t fall for her if you ask me.

Then Be Very Afraid rolls along, and we learn that Varian considers Rapunzel “wondrous and magical,” something Rapunzel notes rather slyly and Pascal seems to think is sweet. The look on Varian’s face when she takes his hand and pulls him along again says it all. Boi is smitten.

Additionally...just look at this dork when Rapunzel catches him being a nerd about metals and drinking hot cocoa in Cassandra’s Revenge. This is the reaction of a teenager who just got caught doing something embarrassing by his crush. He zeroes in on Rapunzel specifically and doesn’t seem to care that any of the others caught him.

But through all of these new feelings for Rapunzel, Varian loves Eugene too (90% platonically in this case), so my take is that he’s resolved to not interfere in their relationship. And after everything that’s happened, he likely feels that Eugene is a better match for her and that they truly deserve each other. Though after his stint as a villain where Varian completely lost his respect for the ruling class, the whole “she’s a princess I’m a peasant” thing would likely not be a factor for him anymore. Also, he’s clearly never given a crap about age gaps, and the 4 year gap between him and Rapunzel is even smaller than his canonical S1 crush on Cassandra with an 8 year gap.

Now that we’ve covered the analysis of canonical events, we can delve into pure fanon speculation territory.

POST SERIES SPECULATION

While Varian has indeed resolved to not do a single stupid thing to mess up Rapunzel and Eugene’s relationship, he can’t keep himself from wanting to be close to Rapunzel and craving her affection. Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) Rapunzel is a very affectionate person, so she’ll hug Varian, hold his hand, even cuddle him because he’s her precious friend. Also, she’s a pro at giving him the verbal validation that seems to fuel him (aka his love language: words of affirmation).

This results in Varian coming up with excuses and ways to stay close to Rapunzel, and at times when he ends up being sandwich-snuggled between Eugene and Rapunzel (because let’s face it, we’ve seen that Eugene is huggy) he sometimes catches himself trying to pretend Eugene isn’t there, which he instantly feels super guilty about.

Side note: Ruddiger is completely aware of how he feels because Varian is an open book when he’s alone with his little raccoon buddy, and the devious little critter sometimes manipulates situations to try to get Varian alone with Rapunzel or to set them up for what he believes is a romantic encounter (what do you mean being trapped inside a dumpster together isn’t romantic? Intimate dark setting, and all the garbage you can eat!). These setups only work about half the time, and so while Varian appreciates the sentiment, he’d prefer Ruddiger to stay out of it because the failures tend to end with Varian being horribly embarrassed.

And if Rapunzel ever gives him what she views as chaste kisses on the cheek or forehead, Varian’s over the freaking moon and always blushes so hard he almost passes out. Rapunzel finds it cute while Eugene thinks it’s the funniest thing ever and teases Varian he’s gonna have to get over that habit if he ever wants a girlfriend/boyfriend of his own. Whether he’s aware of Varian’s crush or not is up for debate, but he for sure has no idea how deep it runs and thus considers it harmless if he’s aware of it.

Varian probably also frequently gives Rapunzel gifts in order to get her attention and favor in the form of inventions/discoveries he thinks she’ll like. He might even bake her things since we’ve seen he has a knack for it. His favorite thing is if he can get Rapunzel to come work on a project with him, giving him the one-on-one time he craves while doing something he loves.

Also, I think that if anyone were to insult Rapunzel in Varian’s presence, they might find their shoes sticky bombed to the floor. Looking at you, Uncle Monty. Varian might become the second person in Corona to not like him.

Of course, he’s not so obsessed with Rapunzel that he has no life outside of her, since he very much enjoys one-on-one time with both his dad and Eugene (Lance is kind of a 50/50 shot for him, and the girls are like little sisters to him). And of course he spends most of his time in his lab doing alchemy. But he lights up every time Rapunzel enters the room and gravitates towards her, and would do pretty much anything for her.

And for a while, Varian convinces himself that this is fine, and that he doesn’t need Rapunzel to love him back the same way he loves her. Though he feels small flares of jealousy whenever she and Eugene kiss or indulge in other romantic gestures that Varian would never hope or dare to try, but he stomps the jealousy down for the greater good of everyone involved.

The wedding would be super bittersweet for him, since he’d be so happy that his friends have found happiness together, even while knowing that Rapunzel is unquestionably out of his reach now. But that doesn't stop him from continuing to love her. His dad says he’ll get over her one day (his only human confidant, the dude is legendary at keeping secrets), but Varian isn’t so sure.

And from this point, the fanon possibilities are pretty much endless, some of them running the gambit from Varian continuing to respectfully pine for Rapunzel in secret, to him getting over her and finding his own happiness with someone else, to him gradually descending into madness and going just a touch yandere. Depends on what flavor of Varian you’re in the mood for: pining Varian, happy Varian, or villainous Varian. And of course, you can get real fancy and combine different Varian flavors to make something unique!

@varipunzel​

[fucktheroyals]

You know after reading and reading and reading peoples theories and the meta from before the spn finale aired and the meta writers reactions to the finale I think I have a theory of my own. We don't have any answers tho, so this is pure speculation. If you wanna add something to support or discredit any of this that's cool but there's too many things floating around. Know I dont have proof for this conclusion at all. A lot of what I say is just guesses based on previous facts.

This all came together in my head when I realized how much this finale REEKS of the original producers and who the show was originally for. It REEKS of Robert Singer. Like if the execs started saying they didn't want it, Robert Singer was the one pushing that the story was about the brothers. That kinda thing.

Then, I was thinking of the problems in this episode and it struck me these are all of Supernatural biggest issues and to be honest all of it feels completely deliberate.

Take the sexism for example, Supernatural in it's later seasons largely out grew this, we have Jody, Rowena, Donna, Charlie, Mary, Claire (and even a wayward sisters pilot with MORE women/girls) all making regular appearances. They're mainly good characters and mostly aren't there to hurt our boys. Rowena, of course, is the one outlier being very about herself but it's clear she still cares for them, I mean its part of her development. But they're all real, with character flaws just like everyone else. (And we have Death too and she was POC 😭 THANK GOD)

Now look at the earlier half of Spn, we have Ellen and Jo, who's appearances were far in between. There's Bela in season 3, recurring for quite a bit (5 eps), but she is a character that is only there for herself, definitely not found family (unlike Ellen & Jo), and she's got more episodes in season 3 than Ellen and Jo in season 2 who aren't seen again til season 5. The "fans" send in hate mail after hate mail to try to get these characters off, and eventually they are. Then there's Ruby who's character stayed for a whole two seasons and was a largely recurring character. Why does she get to say so long? She's a plot device. She's supposed to be there to betray Sam. She has to stay (plus Jared obviously likes her). But she's not just a character the writers like writing about. Same with Lilith. Obviously not as recurring but still a plot device. Did they get hate mail tho? You can bet on it. Why? because tHeY'rE gOnNa PuSh ThE bOyS (Dean and Sam) aPaRt ThE sHoW iS aBoUt ThE bOyS oNlY. Without even thinking about the hate mail, just notice how large the difference is from how women are seen in the earlier seasons to the later seasons. Misha got tons of hate mail too for being a character that could split up the boys (probably only being allowed to say because he a man, thanks sexist producers and execs).

Only after Castiel was killed off and then Castiel fans successfully (thank you guys) got him back on the show did the hate mail largely simmer, which means female character's were allowed to stay! Which has lead us to a show with a good amount of female characters. But can you imagine having to kill characters off time and time again because people keep complaining that the show is "only about the boys." Fun times really.

So now we get to this final and we see sexism. But it wasn't just the plain old regular sexism you find in the earlier days of spn. Because now, there ARE women to talk about, talk to. But this episode was DESOLATE women wise, unless they were used for plot (which is also sexist!). Small scenes, they're barely there. Women gets her tongue cut out. Random women from s1 gets killed. Sam doesn't SPEAK of Eileen. Nothing. No mention of any female characters from the boys mouths unless they were from/in this episode itself. That's WIERD. I know we've all said it. But that goes beyond forgetting about characters. I mean its SAM'S GIRLFRIEND for Christ's sake. There is NO REASON they couldn't have said Eileen's name. Notice how Sam's wife is just... faceless. This is literally an age old sexist trope. Like... one of the things about bringing Mary back to life for s12+ is that it takes this trope... of basically a generic mother, and gives her life and feelings, whether you like them or not, they're real feelings. They said Mary isn't just a mom she's a person. Mary's existence in the later half of spn is to fix this kind of female tropes that fall upon her character, to not let these her stay a 2 dimensional character. They said we should know she's more than just the mom who tried to save her kid. Do that is the exact opposite of Sam getting a nameless, faceless wife. The sexism of the old spn wasn't just brought back, it was completely amplified. It wasn't just accidental or some exec "fixing" the story it was DELIBRATE. Whoever wrote that, didn't do ALL OF THAT by accident. Because an exec or a producer who doesn't see the flaws in old supernatural isn't going to write it that deliberately.

Let's bring it back to s10 when Charlie was killed (singer was mainly to blame). Dead in the bathtub, age old classic of burying ur gays. If you were here you know people never let Supernatural live that down. THEY KNOW what bury ur gays means. Hell, Robbie Thompson left because of Charlie's death and you think the writers don't know what it means? I mean both Bobo Berens (especially) and Steve Yockey's careers are centered around LGBT+ storytelling and you think they don't know? They know. They know.

And Dean wasn't just apart of the bury your gays trope, it is so far BEYOND that. Dean being killed on a rusty nail/screw, the tongues ripped out, things that seemed to be meant for other people. Jensen's acting in the last two episodes was giving us "DEAN RECIPROCATES" but no one ever actually saying it. I think it's clear that Dean was killed for being Bi. They didn't address it for a reason, they just silenced him. His narrative was supposed to be about letting him be HIM for the first time, to say what his feelings are instead of having them miscommunicated, and instead of doing that, they just silenced him. And the more we look at this scene the more horrific it gets. The more it's a complete slap in the face and it's supposed to be. Some guy who knows nothing about the LGBT can't write a scene this horrific.

Some guy who knows nothing about Dean couldn't write a scene that deconstructs all of Dean's character development and gives Dean his worst nightmare. I MEAN DEAN WANTED TO LIVE HIS LIFE! THEY DIDNT HIDE THAT JOB APPLICATION (or whatever job related thing that was) IN THERE FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES THEY WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WORST SITUATION. Dean isn't Barney from HIMYM. If you watched HIMYM then you'll know Barney went from being a stereotypical ladies man and treating women terribly to being in love with a women and treating her right and working hard for it. The last episode of HIMYM (why its so bad) Barney's character development is thrown out and he's back to being a stereotypical ladies man. You don't need to know Barney's character very much to do that.

To kill Dean during a hunt his father never finished, to not have anyone at his funeral, to have Dean die young like his life didn't matter. Those are Dean's worst fears and you'd only truly know that if you watched the gin episode in s3, where they are basically laid out for you. You HAVE to know Dean's character to tear him apart like this.

This episode took all the core elements of the show and did a complete 180° the name of the episode itself is "Carry on" and Dean and Sam very much did not carry on. Sam grieving his entire life so that he good get to heaven and see Dean again. Dean being ready to live his life, despite the enormous pitfalls and learning to love himself only to be killed. "Family don't end with blood." Um.... it did in that episode either literally with Dean's death or you know BECAUSE NONE OF THEIR FOUND FAMILY WAS THERE. Not Jack, Not Cas, Not Eileen, Not Donna, Not Charlie, Not Jody, Not Claire... on and on we go. No one was there, nobody was even mentioned. Dean's funeral, no one even called that we know of. It was just Sam and Dean. Sam and Dean. And Bobby. Don't forget Bobby. But yeah Sam and Dean.

That's what the show is about right, the brothers.

Except it's not anymore. It hasn't been for years.

Cas not being there was deafening but it brought us to a major point. Becky. Becky's telling us about the terrible ending.

And many of us are wondering why would they literally tell us this is the worst ending and then... make it the ending.

Now before we move on, it very apparent many of you think Dabb doesn't ship Deancas. And Dabb doesn't care about the characters.

Say what you will about any plot holes in his writing, the point he is VERY GOOD at writing the characters, and giving us good ones.

Why do we know Dabb ships Deancas? (ill say when its cowrote, other wise its not) cowrote ep 8.02 - purgatory "I prayed to you, Cas, every night" "Cas, Buddy, I need you." "I have a price on my head, and I've been trying to stay one step ahead of them, to – to keep them away from you." 8.08 Hunteri Heroici - Cas helps them hunt! 😊❤ Dean & Cas have a serious convo about why Cas doesn't want to see/go to heaven. 8.22 Dean's mad at Cas. Sam's explanation of why Dean should be easy on Cas: "It's Cas." Dean then points out how he'd knife anybody else if they did what Cas did. 9.10 - Cas comforts Dean when Dean can't take seeing Sam (Gadreel) being tortured anymore. Also tons of Cas. 9.20 (bloodlines) - Canonical couple parallel "I was there, where were you" 9.22 The angels make Cas choose between them and killing Dean and he "gave up an entire army for one guy" 10.09 Claire's reintroduction. Cas heavy ep. DeanCas date. 10.22 THE PRISONER - u know the ep where Dean beats the shit out of Cas but loves him enough to not kill him.

We COULD keep going but I think I've made my point. If Robert Singer is the guy that is like "the show is about Sam and Dean only" Andrew Dabb is the DeanCas shipper. And you could even say a Cas stan.

Notice! How in s13 for SEVEN episodes we have a story that revolves around Dean's grief about losing Cas. Notice! How often the stories in all these seasons have a focus on their relationship. THAT is Andrew Dabb. If it weren't for him doing that, we wouldn't be able to easily say after Dean's lack of a response to Cas' confession, that Dean reciprocates.

To me, when I was (binge) watching s12 for the first time, I thought damn this is really got a lot of DeanCas. So I went to look at who was in charge, who was writing. I saw Andrew Dabb, associated him with Deancas episodes, saw all the new writers, Bobo, and then I saw that Yockey is known for same sex stories and it clicked. Dabb assembled a team to give us Destiel. THAT WAS IN SEASON 12!!!!!!!!

The amount of people saying he's homophobic flabbergast me. Open your eyes! That isn't what's going on.

Imagine making a show and trying to right all the wrongs of Supernatural. Imagine trying to write the greatest love story ever told and you have the entire season planned out for it to end off beautifully, it may possibly be your greatest achievement when it's done and then boom. someone comes in and tells you you aren't allowed to make Dean bi or make destiel endgame, after he was most probably already given the go ahead.

Sure. You could imply he's bi or into cas still in a way. Still make nice-ish ending. just give everyone what the kinda want.

Or you could scrap the last season, nothing close to a canonical bisexual Dean Winchester or Deancas endgame in site. People can be done with it be happy with the show, continue to live their lives in ignorance as to how close they were to Canon destiel.

OR you can lead everyone to the very closest you can get them to what you were aiming for and then show everyone the ugly truth and reality. Light it all on fire. Burn the show to the ground in your wake. Try your darnedest to making these people's (the people saying no) pockets suffer. Show us, the audience, what happened. Show us what this show really is.

I've seen people talk about the ending being changed during covid but I dont think that happened. I think what happened was Dabb already had this season planned out before it even started. Obviously the details were wobbly but it was all lead up to this ending. Destiel endgame, Canon Bisexual Dean, whatever it was. They were ready to write the greatest love story ever told and then someone shut it down.

Imagine the pain that must have caused them to be told no when they already said yes. They must have been so excited to give this to us.

I think someone (some producers) told him what this show is "really" about. The brothers. Can you imagine, after being told no, some kinda bullshit like this is said to you: "Why aren't you bringing it back to the brothers, Andrew? that's what the shows about. What with all this homosexual stuff, you know the audience won't like that. Not really." Imagine the original producers pushing this kind of view on you. "You know when we started it was Sam and Dean. It should end with Sam and Dean." That kinda sounds like someone huh? huh.

So why give us a nice acceptable finale, when you can take every problem Supernatural's had either up front or behind the scenes and create a finale so incredibly bad that people don't want to watch it anymore.

Someone made a good point about how Sam was originally supposed to be the main focus (this isn't to put any hate on Sam or Jared). Dean and Sam are the main characters but Sam was supposed to be the focus and for Dean to have become the focus, must have annoyed the producers because... well here we are. They wouldn't listen to Jensen. The producers liked this ending. Jensen's opinion didn't matter to them.

In some ways, if this is really what happened, it can be seen as childish from Dabb. To hurt all of us like that. Yes, he's hurting the producers, the execs, the cw. But to hurt us? Yeah it stings.

But in other ways, if this is really what happened, this is Dabb showing us the muck and gunk under the shiny surface. The hate for Misha. The hidden hate for Jensen. The underlying sexism. The underlying homophobia. The people REALLY in charge don't care about us, they just want our money. He needed to open our eyes and free us, at least free the people that he was writing for. The people he sees that care about this show.

This is the ending the powers that be wanted and its a big fuck you for a reason. I dont think this is Dabb spitting in our faces for loving this show, I think this is him trying to get revenge for us.

But from here, you can see it how u want it. If this is really what happened, I'm not in charge of your emotions, if you wanna be mad be mad if you wanna be grateful be grateful. And you don't have to believe me either I said this is speculation.

Also, as for all of the rumors like there being shots to the confession scene that we didn't see, which Jensen himself implied, I think that might have been a last ditch effort to canonized DeanCas but obviously it was cut. Like the name change was pretty clear. As for Misha possibly having shot some stuff for 20 I dont know what to tell you. If it's true I dont know where the blame would lie.

I do think however, that if all this was the case, the writers were prepared to become villians here. I mean they told us the writers were villians with Chuck right? So. Who knows what went down so they could give us such a vile ending. It could've been the producers or the writers, who truly knows. I do think tho that people we "trust" did some pretty shitty things to push the narrative in certain directions so now one would see this as the actual ending that was coming.

So again do with my SPECULATION what you will. This was in no way meant to put Dabb on a pedestal or anything. Just meant to give a bit of perspective.

(Also Jensen didn't unfollow Dabb recently he was already unfollowed for years)

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 2x12 Review

Second Chances was a lacklustre finale for an uneven season. Let’s dig in!

Earlier this week I re-watched S1 in preparation for the S2 finale and the contrast between the two seasons is jarring. In almost every way S2 has been worse and after seeing this finale I’m less optimistic that Tim will be able to fix the long list of things that have gone wrong. Tim has said in some of his interviews today that pretty much all of S2 was written before the pandemic and that they didn’t have to do as much re-writing as people might think due to the stringent safety measures Disney put in place. Of course, that removes an excuse for the bad writing we’ve seen so much of this season as according to Tim what we saw of S2 is largely what he envisioned minus big crowds and background dancers.

 Across his many interviews today, the one consistent point is that Tim does not have any real plans for future seasons; things like Ricky’s endgame he hasn’t decided on and he can’t even guarantee the summer season the finale sets up due to the weather in Salt Lake. I do think a S3 is an almost certainty given the show’s popularity but I’ll take Tim at his word that he truly doesn’t know if they’ll be renewed since it seems to be a new Disney tradition to wait until seasons are done airing before making a renewal decision (the same thing happened for the popular and well received Mighty Ducks: Game Changers which got a silent renewal only after all of S1 aired). That being said as poor of a season finale as Second Chances is it is also a terrible potential series finale. In large part it goes back to his lack of planning, he wants to keep all options open but in doing so Tim is crippling the show’s ability to deliver any pay offs or tie up loose ends.  

The one mostly well done plot line this season was Portwell which got a happy ending tonight as they canoned. The only good thing about the big brother angst was that it was so insane that it had to be addressed and sure enough it was and Gina got her first kiss with a guy she really liked. If Tim is to be believed the reason we didn’t get an on screen Portwell kiss was not because of their age difference or covid concerns but because he felt that everyone’s first kiss was different so he wanted it off screen so viewers could fill in the blanks themselves. Tim’s line of reasoning is profoundly stupid. Imagine if they had Jamie show up and he and Gina talked off screen and Tim tried to claim that because everyone has a different relationship with their own siblings that he wanted the audience to fill in the blanks as to how their conversation went!

Still we saw great character development on Gina and EJ’s part as both really grew from the people they were in S1. As Tim noted, EJ bringing Gina back in 1x10 was kind of the set up for this story line. The only thing missing was a brief Portwell scene sometime in eps 2x01-2x04 to set them up. The consistent development they got from 2x05-2x12 is unlike any other ship on the show; only Rini exceeds their development. 

Unfortunately I don’t think that will last in S3 because Tim will always favour Ricky over EJ and if he wants to do Rina he’ll dispose of Portwell before doing so. I was surprised that they never bothered to have Ricky and Gina have a conversation about Gina’s S1 confession. It was a huge mistake to have Gina pine over Ricky for half the season and it was no surprise that Gina’s story line got instantly better once she stopped interacting with Ricky. Tim has made clear in interviews that he’s still interested in the possibility of Rina which makes his poor writing of them even more bizarre. What conclusions are the audience supposed to draw from the Rina story line this season? That Ricky never cared that much about Gina? That it’s totally fine for the show if they don’t interact for 6 eps in a row? That Gina has moved on? I’ve said before that a wiser man than Tim would recognize that doing both Portwell and Rina will do tremendous damage to the show and he should pick one and not do the other. Of course he’s not that smart but it is wild how he’s accidentally written their story line to make for a perfect end to Rina. 

Second Chances was great and is the only part of the finale that would have been well suited to being part of a potential series finale. 

The Rini closure was a sad inverse of their S1 opening night confession. They’ve fallen so far from being the it couple of the series and I fear Tim doesn’t actually know what to do with them now. He really needs to decide if he’s tearing down that treehouse for real. 

The less said about the Valentine’s chocolates the better but at least Gina and Nini are cool again and Nini can explore her budding music career with Jamie’s help. Tim repeatedly said in interviews that the scripts about Nini’s music career were all written before Driver’s License came out and I think he understands that the audience is just going to see the show as copying from Olivia’s life. 

The wildcats just deciding to drop out of the Menkies was a lame cop out. Tim has said he always meant for that to happen though they were originally going to compete at the Menkies then drop out (presumably that’s where we would have heard Lily singing Home). Somebody should have mentioned the $50 000 prize money which the East High theatre department could surely use after Miss Jenn and Mr. Mazzara burned it down (remember that story line that had no consequences?). And that NYU scholarship could have been life changing for one of them and yet no one even brought  it up once this season. 

I did like the twist that it was EJ and his dad who got Mazzara into Caltech. He’d be a fool not to take it but I’m glad he confessed to Miss Jenn. She’s had a really rough season and I hope she redeems herself in S3.

Howie was acting so weird tonight and last ep that I have a hard time believing he was really so awed by Kourtney’s talent rather than feeling guilty for helping to steal the harness. The harness is another useless plot device; there are no consequences for Lily stealing it, she’s not caught, East High pulls off another version of the transformation off screen, and then East High withdraws from the Menkies anyways. Doubtless the harness will eventually come up to serve Rily angst. 

At least Lily was straightforward, I’ll give her that. She has such an odd way of speaking, almost child like. As awful as it is there is potential for a forbidden/secret romance story line with Rily. It really does not speak well to Ricky’s character that he’s so easily fallen for Lily’s act when he has no reason to trust her and she never apologized for making fun of Big Red during the auditions or making Ashlyn feel insecure during the dance off. 

The one way in which S2 was drastically better to S1 was in regards to the Seblos story line. Clearly Joe being bumped up to regular made a big difference. We got the first same-sex kiss between two boys and the first love song sung by one boy to another in Disney history and that is a legacy to be proud of. Of course, there was still some Disney censorship such as Carlos and Seblos being unable to use the word gay in the same ep that focused on Carlos singing In a Heartbeat to Seb. 

S1 of HSMTMTS had a clear direction, the wildcats would have to try and come together to stage High School Musical and Ricky and Nini would have to decide if they still had a future together while Gina and EJ had to work on being better versions of themselves. It was simple sure but it worked very well. There was a lot of heart but also a lot of humor and the show never took itself too seriously. What has S2 had? Beauty and the Beast was hardly the main focus of the cast or the writers and the central couple that S1 was built around is now broken up either for a long time or for good. There was a lot less of the meta moments that jokes that made S1 such a hit, for far too many eps this season the show took itself way too seriously. Hell even the lighting this season was darker than in S1. 

Olivia Rodrigo’s team had complained in a recent article that Olivia wouldn’t be able to potentially tour until fall 2022 due to her contractual commitments which is a sign that they think a S3 is very likely though I wonder how late S3 filming would have to start to keep her occupied until late 2022. There’s no confirmation of this but I thought it might be worth keeping an eye on; a post on r/hsmtmts by someone who claims to have a source working on production says that the plan is for S3 to be a summer theatre camp possibly with Camp Rock renditions and the plan for S4 is to jump 6 months ahead to the final semester of senior year and end with Ricky, Nini, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating from East High. They also say that part of the delay in the S3 announcement is a conflict between Tim and Disney executives. Tim wants to move production to LA and film on sets as it’s easier and cheaper while the Disney execs still want some on location shooting in Salt Lake. Again this is all unconfirmed but if it pans out it will represent a major shift in the series. 

Regardless if Tim wants the show to remain successful he needs start planning out what he wants to happen. He should not assume he’s getting more than 4 seasons. If the series gets a S3 but then is suddenly cancelled then how would he want all the main story lines to wrap up? And if they make it to S4 where does he see it ending? The graduation of the current juniors is a logical series ending point but if Tim wants to do something different he needs to start thinking of that now. I can’t say I’m excited anymore for S3 but I do really hope that Tim and his writers can turn things around and that will only happen if they recognize what they did wrong and learn from their mistakes. 

Until next season Wildcats

[gra-sonas]

Kybel or Antsa\Iz?

I'm in a real dilemma over this tbh.

As a queer woman who CRAVES sapphic content on screen (which is still so very rare), I wish I'd be rooting hard for Anatsa and Isobel. And I feel like I could've done that, had the show put in any effort to actually develop the pairing on screen.

But so far, they haven't.

They introduced Anatsa as a one-night-stand-interest for Max, which... awkward??? (not shaming Anatsa btw, she has exceptional taste in tall aliens, there was just no reason to make her sleep with Max imo, she could've easily bonded with him over a shared interest in writing, and she could've still been surprised/irritated about the fact that he's a cop, IDK, just an odd choice imo), and for the first half of the season she was only part of his storyline every now and then until she and Isobel randomly sat together at the Pony bar (Maria mentioned seeing them “canoodling” in a later episode, which we didn’t get to see tho, so we have no idea what actually happened between them. SHOW, DON’T JUST TELL, FFS 🙄).

I assume that was supposed to mark the beginning of "their" story, but I think Anatsa wasn't even in the next 2-3 episodes after that, so, who knows??? 🤷‍♀️

IDK, it's certainly not due to a lack of chemistry between Lily and Sibongile, and I think Anatsa has the potential to be an interesting character - if the writing would put in the effort to make her one.

Randomly throwing her at Isobel would maybe still work, if Isobel hadn't also shared numerous meaningful and emotional scenes with Kyle this season (in 3x10 even back to back with an A/I scene), showing how close they are, how comfortable they are with each other, and how much chemistry they have.

In 3x10 we’ve also seen Kyle being visibly affected by Isobel approaching Anatsa at the pool table, imo that implies that he's definitely interested in Isobel “like that”. And Isobel is always sunshine personified in every scene with Kyle. I mean, did you see her face when they met in 3x10, her calling him "Dr. Abs" and asking for a hug??? They hugged so tight, Lily must’ve felt Trevino’s abs through 5 layers of clothes.

The show is failing Anatsa/Isobel HARD imo. They didn’t get any development, they haven’t even been allowed to kiss yet, and on the other hand the show’s paired Isobel with Kyle in so many scenes, I’m struggling to truly feel much for A/I.

Again, I see the potential in A/I, but the show’s currently “pitting” the queer wlw pairing in three random and underdeveloped moments against the m/f pairing with numerous shared scenes, and a long-standing history on the show, and that’s very disappointing. :(

Ahead of S3 I was really excited about the idea of Isobel being paired up with Sibongile’s character (we didn’t know whether it would happen, we didn’t even have a character name at the time, neither did we know anything else about the character - fast forward 10 episodes into S3, we've only learned her first name, that she’s a reporter from Chicago, can sing, is good at archery, and that she has a knack for adding bourbon to her coffee - how are we supposed to be invested in a character we know so little about???). I was even upset when it was all about Max in the first half of the season and it seemed like she wouldn’t be the one who’d be paired with Isobel. And now?

I really just want Kybel to happen tbh. Bc they have the emotional connection, I care about both characters deeply, and I see the 🔥🔥🔥 chemistry in every moment they are in a scene together.

You can’t just throw two queer characters at each other, do shit about writing a proper story for them, and then pretend like it’s great queer rep, or awesome writing for an LGBTQIA+ pairing. It’s not.

I mean, can you imagine if they’d done this properly and given A/I a meaningful storyline with emotional impact? Maybe even let two apparently bi/pan women have a convo about being bi/pan in the queer community? They could’ve done some really cool things with the pairing, address issues/stereotypes especially bi/pan women are often dealing with.

Instead we got some random not-even-trying scenes where basically nothing happened, we barely even know Anatsa yet, while Kybel light a fire in every scene they share.

I’m so over stupid fucking triangles (and this show handles them so, so badly), and I hate that I can’t really root for A/I bc I’m emotionally invested in Kybel (the show’s doing everything right with them, but if A/I is what’s happening, it kinda sucks that Kybel get all these meaningful scenes). *sigh*

[bellasweetwriting]

Mysterious Girlfriend

Spencer Reid x Latina Reader

(not my gif)

masterlist

plot: Spencer Reid has a new girlfriend, and no matter how much evidence he has, Morgan and Hotch does not believe she exists

warnings: most fluff, kissing, criminal minds typical stuff

notes: this is s3-s4 spencer

word count: 1,8k

— • • • —

"Doctor!" Yelled Rossi arriving at where Spencer was filling his paperwork. "What are your plans tonight?"

"As if Reid has ever had plans in his life, " mocked Morgan.

"I actually do have plans tonight, Derek, " answered Reid surprising the BAU who could not believe the words that came out of Spencer’s mouth.

"Oh, really?" Questioned Morgan, putting down his paperwork. "You, Spencer Reid, have plans on a Friday night?"

"Yep... why? You don't?" That reply caught the attention of everyone, who started laughing. "I think it's the first time I have plans and you don't, isn't it?"

Morgan rolled his eyes. He didn't believe him. Reid doesn't go out, and if he does, he always goes out with the team, not on his own.

"And what plans do you have?"

"I'm going dancing tonight." That generated surprise from everyone.

"Reid, I've seen you dance, it’s embarrassing. Come up with a better lie next time, " intervened Emily sipping the last drop from her coffee.

"Oh, I'm aware of that, Emily. It's just that I got the perfect teacher." And with that, Rossi laughed.

"No way... she?" Reid nodded. "Did she finally say yes?"

"We've been dating for a month now, " announced Spencer with a big smile, confusing their other colleagues who didn't understand what was going on. "She's perfect."

"Wait, not only you have plans on a Friday night—" interrupted Hotch looking at the young Doctor—" but also you have a girlfriend?"

"And Rossi knows about her and we don't?" Asked Morgan. "Who are you?"

But at that moment, JJ interrupted the chit chat with a file on her hands, making everyone complain.

"Sorry, guys, it's urgent!" She yelled. "Cancel your plans."

"Conference room in five minutes, " announced Hotch.

"We’ll talk about this in the jet, pretty boy, " said Morgan to him before leaving towards the conference room with a coffee in his hand.

— • • • —

Morgan didn't waste a second and sat in front of Reid on the plain. The entire team was curious about Reid’s new "girlfriend" who Reid wouldn't give details about other than the fact that she could dance.

"Give me a name, " demanded Morgan and Spencer laughed.

"So that Garcia can investigate her? No thanks."

"Where does she work?" Asked Derek.

"At a college."

"She's a student or some?"

"What? No! She works at a college, not attends college."

"Don't forget to add—" interrupted Rossi— "that she's Latina." Reid nodded with a smile.

Derek was dying internally. If this girl was fake, he would never forgive Spencer for playing with his mind, but if she was real, it could be the biggest thing that has happened in the entire year.

"What does she do at this college?" Questioned Hotch who specifically said in the conference room that they were not going to interrogate more about Spencer’s mysterious girlfriend, but not even him could resist the curiosity.

"She's a professor, " answered Reid.

"You also wanna know, sir?" Asked Emily to Hotch and he nodded.

"Reid with a Latina girlfriend isn't something that happens every day, " pointed Hotch before looking at Reid again. "How old is she?"

"My age."

"That's impossible. She doesn't exist, " determined Morgan with a cocky smile. "A professor your age, Latina, interested in you? That's the perfect woman!"

Reid leaned in closer and smile. "I know... that's why I'm dating her, Morgan."

Morgan pointed at him with his index finger while Reid chuckled.

"Son of a bitch, " murmured Morgan. "I'm gonna demonstrate that this girl is fake."

"Why don't you do a bet?" Offered JJ, gaining the team's attention. "If Morgan can prove by the time we go home that Reid’s girlfriend is fake, Reid gives him something that he wants."

"I like that, " said Derek with a smile. "I have till the end of the case to prove that you are lying. If I do, you give me twenty bucks."

"Make it forty and we split, " interrupted Hotch sitting next to Morgan. "I'll help Morgan."

"Fine!" Accepted Reid. "I want to see what you guys come up with. But if you fail, between the two you have to give me forty bucks. Deal?"

"Deal, " agreed Morgan, and Hotch nodded. It was a closed deal.

— • • • —

"How are we gonna prove that Reid is lying?" Asked Morgan to Hotch.

"Reid isn't a good liar. There's gonna be something in his story that is not going to make sense, he's gonna make a mistake and that's how we are going to prove his lie. While we wait for that, get Garcia to look for a list of twenty-seven-year-old professors in colleges around the state. There shouldn't be much, she should try the whole country."

"On it." Morgan walked away, calling Garcia.

"What's up, sweetheart?" Asked Penelope on the other side of the line.

"Hey, baby girl, I need something."

"I’m all ears."

"I need a list of Latina professors around the country, twenty-seven-year-olds to be specific, works in a college."

"Nah, I'm not doing that, " said, confusing Morgan. "JJ told me about the bet with Hotch and Reid and I certainly know this is not for the case."

"Come on, girl, I need it."

"I'm sorry but Spencer prohibited me to research his girlfriend like two weeks ago. He made me promise in front of him that I wouldn't do it. And he called me when you guys got off the plane."

"He did what!?" Exclaimed Morgan, getting Hotch’s attention.

"He warned me that you and Hotch would try to get information on his girlfriend and he said that he would give me half of the forty bucks if I didn't help you. And I love you, chocolate baby, but I also love twenty bucks. Call me when involves something about the case. Bye, baby."

And with that, Garcia hung up the phone. Derek walked madly towards Hotch, who was looking at him confused.

"Reid bribed Garcia so she wouldn't give us any info."

"We could use that in our favor." Morgan looked at him confused. "Why would Reid bribe Garcia to not give us the information to prove that she's real if he isn't lying?"

"He doesn't want Garcia to look her up because she isn't real!" Hotch nodded. "These are going to be the sweetest twenty bucks I’ve ever received, baby. Let’s go!"

— • • • —

By the end of the case, Morgan and Hotch had collected all the information that they needed to win the bet. The whole team entered the jet, and both sat down in front of Reid filled with adrenaline, ready to prove that Reid’s girlfriend isn't real.

"Prepare the forty bucks, pretty boy." Spencer put down his book and looked over to his colleagues, pretty sure that they had nothing. "You bribed Garcia so she wouldn't do any research on your «girlfriend». Why would you prevent us from finding actual evidence of her existence if she isn't real?"

"What's the fun in that? For that, I would have called Garcia myself in front of you and made her look my girlfriend up and I would already have the forty bucks. That's all you have?"

"We asked you if she worked in the city and you said she worked outside the state, but that you met her with Rossi when you attended one of her classes in Virginia. How's that?"

"Well... she gives different lectures around different states. She was giving one in Virginia when I met her, but she doesn't live in Virginia"

Hotch and Morgan had so much evidence, but Reid had an answer for everything.

"You could still be lying! You aren't giving us her name, or what college she works in. You are just giving us random facts that you could’ve made up, " said Hotch. "There's no way to prove that you are telling the truth."

"And there isn't evidence to prove I'm lying, either. Why don't you guys just give up and give me my forty bucks?" Questioned Spencer.

"Or why don't you just simply agree that no one won?" Interrupted Emily. "You guys couldn't prove he is lying but no one is sure that she exists, Spencer, so you didn't win either. Just forget it."

"You believe that she exists, Prentiss?" Asked Morgan.

"Oh, no, she's fake, but Reid did you good. You can't prove it."

And with that, Morgan and Hotch gave up.

— • • • —

As soon as they arrived at the office, everyone sat down and filled his paperwork. When Spencer left to the bathroom, Morgan wasn't slow to get up and look over Reid’s desk.

"What are you doing?" Questioned Hotch as soon as he saw him, making the rest of the team look too. "Morgan—"

"I'm gonna prove this kid is lying. There’s gotta be something here that shows what really was gonna do Spencer yesterday."

"Y/N!" Rossi yelled, catching everyone’s attention.

A girl in a red dress with a leather jacket on top walked towards Rossi with a smile. She was young, beautiful with gorgeous y/e/c eyes who brightened the entire office. No one could stop looking at you.

"SSA Rossi! How are you doing? Haven't seen you for so long!" Exclaimed Y/N with a smile. "And this must be the team."

"I'm Derek." Morgan presented himself, standing up quickly from Spencer’s chair. "You are?"

"Y/N, " you repeated your name. Rossi introduced all the members and you greeted each one. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I've heard a lot about you."

"How do you know Agent Rossi?" Asked Hotch and Y/N smiled.

"I met him about two months ago? Three months? He assisted one of my lectures with Spencer."

Derek turned around to look at Hotch. There was no way.

"You..." started Morgan, not believing what he was hearing. "You are the professor."

"I guess," Y/N said with a smile.

"Baby!" They heard Spencer exclaiming as he came back from the bathroom. The professor walked towards him and he kissed her softly on the lips for a few seconds before pulling away. "What are you doing here? I was going to pick you up."

"I know, just... wanted to see you. After you canceled our plans yesterday—"

"I’m so sorry about that. I had an urgent case.”

"It’s okay," she interrupted. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah just let me give quickly my paperwork to Hotch," said Reid, walking towards his desk and giving Hotch his file. "Guys, did you meet Y/N?"

"Yeah we did," whispered Derek.

"Wonderful surprise," added Hotch.

Reid laughed.

"I’ll claim my forty bucks tomorrow," said the doctor with a smile before grabbing Y/N’s hand and interlocking their fingers. "See you Monday! Do not call!"

"Adios," said Y/N with a smile.

"Have fun!" Exclaimed JJ as they both left. "I can’t believe it."

"I can’t believe I felt attracted to Reid’s girlfriend," mumbled Derek. "I need to see a doctor, I’m having a heart attack."

"Reid’s got a girlfriend," whispered Emily. "Wow..."

[coldbam]

i want to know more about your take of 911 ls and like tk and carlos???

My main thoughts are just how shocking it is how much they do not interact.

below the cut bc this got LONG and also spoilers for plot points throughout the series.

S1 was particularly terrible for this. They met, they fucked, Carlos tries to date TK and TK isn’t into it and then a few episode later they are seemingly dating and boyfriends? Like truly they have SO FEW SCENES together. When TK was shot*, Carlos gets to the room and sits down next to TK and I was like ok cool we will get his thoughts on what they are to each other, BUT THE SCENE JUST IMMEDIATELY CUTS AS SOON AS HE SITS DOWN KVDJKHFJ And in s2 they are just all of a sudden moving in together, we of course do NOT get the scene of them deciding this, and then like 3 episodes you realize the only reason they moved in together is so their house can burn down bc someone wants to get back at rob Lowe. S3 is maybe better about them having scenes but I just have 0 investment bc there was no foundation and also Carlos killed a man** and TK was like “babe, I know you're going through it, BUT” HE DID NOT CARE DKGJKDFJKD (tbf neither did Carlos, he was mostly annoyed about this man he killed accidentally)

Rob Lowe absolutely SUFFOCATES this show in a way no character ever has on 911. It could’ve been the Athena show! It could’ve been the Bobby show! But it wasn’t and I am SO SO THANKFUL, we have this really amazing ensemble, where they ALL get moments to shine. On lone star even if a scene starts out being about Mateo, or TK, or Marjan, it seemingly always ends up being about rob lowe in the end. It’s to the point where 3 and a half seasons in we’ve only JUST seen Paul’s house. In 911 proper we knew everyone’s living situations by EARLY s2, we understood what was going on in their personal lives, and all of them have their own little supporting cast!! I doubt we will ever learn anything about Nancy outside of work on LS!!!

Also, the entire concept of the pilot of lone star was putting the team together, we have been with them since day 0, and they put so little effort into actually SHOWING the team building and creating those bonds between the characters. We are supposed to know that Paul and Marjan are each other’s ride or dies, but did we ever SEE any of that??? S1 the team came together to help Mateo pass his exam but the idea had to come from ROB LOWE telling them to!!

Also this show does not let anything breathe. The s2 episode where Tommy’s husband dies was GOOD, Gina Torres is very good at what she does, and all of her stuff was v emotional! But then the episode ends with DUST STORM INCOMING? like imagine if BOSTON ENDED ON A NOTE LIKE THAT? it would feel so cheap.

EDIT: sorry to add to this, but i didn’t even get into dispatch which is practically non existent on LS. grace is the only dispatch seemingly in all of texas. in the 4 EPISODE snow storm 2 episodes don’t have a single emergency apparently bc phone lines are down and everyone got half day. josh and sue would NEVER let that happen??? THERE WOULD BE A SYSTEM IN PLACE ON THE WHITE BOARD WITHIN MINUTES!!!! dispatch on 911 is a whole ass family!!!! dispatch on LS is nothing other than One Big Call for grace every 5 episodes. (also even those calls, she doesn't get to DO anything, she barely gets to react afterwards, meanwhile JHL gets to do some of her very best crying after nearly every call!!!)

also the big disaster episodes have just been... such a disappointment for me. first of all only doing a single episode on a volcano and then IMMEDIATELY jumping to a COMPLETELY UNREALTED FOREST FIRE THE VERY NEXT EPISODE nearly broke me. i would have bet everything that the episode prior to the crossover was establishing the forest fires, instead 911 proper has nearly more of a leadup????

one last note re: disasters - during the s1 tornado episode (which was disappointing for many reasons!! they did not do that disaster justice) the team sent mateo out into the storm ALONE to take the flags down, and of course it didnt go well and they had to go rescue him and like???? YOU ARE FIREFIGHTERS????? DONT SEND SOMEONE OUT IN A CRAZY STORM ON TEHIR OWN TO DO SOMETHING INVOLING A LADDER????? TRANSFER MATEO TO THE 118! THEY WOULD NEVER. I've never forgiven them for this.

finally.... and this one is maybe subjective.. but i just do Not find the acting bench nearly as deep on LS, lol sorry.

*comparing the 2 big S1 main character injuries of TK and chimney with the rebar... LS is soooo badly done compared. like TK gets shot, and then we immediately cut to commercial and hes in the hospital - we dont get to see the team saving him!! WE DONBT GET TO SEE THE TEAM SAVING HIM! like i cannot emphasize enough how much i feel like this is such a WASTE.

**speaking of carlos killing a man, this is probably the first storyline we've ever had of grace and carlos together, all of a sudden she is telling him to BE SAFE over the radio and then coming to his home to work together to make sure they could put the blame of this mans death firmly elsewhere. like we have NEVER established any sort of relationship with them before and then we jump to THIS!!! LS is so so so bad at creating relationship dynamics

Anyways, LS bad, but it makes me appreciate 911 and I would like Nancy and Mateo to transfer to LA.

[trippin-over-my-fandoms]

Hi so I was wondering if you have any like spacegravity headcanons au ideas or just ideas in general because ao3 is like a dried up desert where stories are far and few

I understand the feeling! I do have fanfic ideas I’ll share some info about and some plans I have writing wise for my latest OTP!

So we’ve got two kinds of fixits. One is going to be a happy ending for the pair and the other will potentially be a long fic that will kinda be like my idea of a season 4. The first one will just be a short story- possibly all introspective, of what I think their life would be like in an au where s3 ended differently. The second one needs a lot of work and decision making (and less wips and writing projects in my way) before it’ll even see the light.

I want to write them on a date! Kind of an insert that could fit into a plot during the season if it were a bit longer (over more days). I got an ask a while back and had an idea for a date for them I only (sadly) partly remember now but! I’ve got a cute idea!

I’ll also be writing an extension of the Higher Love scene from episode two which will cover Luther and his self consciousness over his body. Something mentioned in a few asks I got before the premier.

I also want to write one or more 18+ mature or explicit fics since im trying to get better at those but it’s slow goings and I am already getting tripped up over the fanon of “Luther’s lower half is normal” getting smashed and I pay too much attention to detail :”) so I may have to say fuck it and go for au or something lol. I take myself way too seriously so I may just need to toss everything to the wind and go for it.

I can’t commit to many long projects as I tend to abandon them fast in favor of new ideas or fixations but I’ll definitely be trying to get some shorter works out. There’s a lot I wish we could have seen in s3 so I’m gonna try to bring some of those wishes to life in writing. Hopefully soon! I’ve got a lot going on the upcoming two weeks and in the downtime I’m planning on getting some spacegravity written for managing my anxieties lol.

Also I want to add that you guys are more than welcome to send me little prompts or scenarios for me to write!

[hood-ex]

Mmmmm.... What if I am a tmnt fan who is looking for good fics 👀

Then you absolutely should read my favorite fic of all time if you like hurt!Leo and hurt!Mikey 😁. It is written in the first person which I know bugs a lot of people, but the voice for Mikey is so good and engaging that you won’t even notice it. The 2k3 characterization in it is brilliant and you can actually “hear” the turtle's voices when you’re reading.

Underdark by Nekotsuki 

He’s hanging upside down in the middle of the great underdark, weighed down by a half hysterical turtle in the middle of a bunch of pipes and water and rock that are conspiring to kill us both off, and Leo still manages to sound like he Has A Plan.

Here are some other turtle fics you might enjoy (tbh a lot of good ones are on ff.net but I’ll just give you ones from AO3):

2k3

Smoking Guns by Valpoet

Same as it Never Was divergent - in a world where by miracle alone the brothers survive and Donatello came back from "Purgatory". This is a series of various oneshots, drabbles, and snippets from an alternate ALTERNATE universe in which Leonardo is blind, Donatello is guilt stricken, Michelangelo is learning to forgive, and Raphael is learning how to cast aside his anger in favour of loving his brothers.

Raph could really use a smoke right about now. He could also use some time to get out of his own head.

And Call Me in the Morning by slipstream

It’s not like Don is doing this for fun, he reminds himself as the olive-skinned turtle makes up four fresh syringes and starts measuring out doses. He’s his doctor and his brother, he only has Mikey’s best interest at—

He blinks, eyes suddenly fixed on the band of cloth fixed tight to Don’s upper thigh. “Dude, what’s wrong with your leg?”

A Simple Act of Kindness by UlisaBarbic

When the Battle Nexus comes around again, Michelangelo's title of Champion has finally been taken from him but the results are not what anyone expected.

Mutant Nightmare by HamsterMasterSamster

He’s not supposed to be the smart one, but it’s all up to him to place his fists on his hips and dredge up that one repulsive word that’s been gathering bile at the back of his throat ever since he woke up choking on a scream.

“Bishop.”

Post-S3 Worlds Collide canon filler.

2k7

we’ve been here all along by taizi

“Don’t call him, Casey, please. Don't—he’s always so busy, I don’t want to bother him.”

“What are you—wait, is that why you came here, instead of home? You thought you’d bother him? Mikey, you got shot.”

“Leo’s gone,” the kid said, so frankly it took Casey by surprise. “Raph’s never around. All that’s left is Donnie, and if I…. I don’t want to mess it up, I don’t want to make him leave, too. Please don’t call him. I need him to stay.”

2k12

Powerful Motivators by LeanMeanGreenTeam (stresselephant)

The team run into some trouble upon discovering another Kraang base after they take back New York. The turtles learn that when his family is on the line, Mikey always pulls through. April also learns that on the path to becoming a kunoichi, one must be patient with themselves.

In Your Mind by fireworksinthenight

Leo's attempt at perfecting his healing skills has an unexpected result, and now he relies on Mikey to help him - preferably before their whole family gets destroyed.

Devil took your hand by moogsthewriter, taizi

Michelangelo gets ambushed; the Shredder gets another chance to test his mind control serum. Surprisingly- unfortunately- it works better than anticipated.

2k14/2k16

Family Matters by FoxGlade

Blood loss and adrenaline crashes are no small thing. April goes to check on the turtles and gets a small insight into how the family works.

2k18

A Pancake Party by SimplyUnknown

In order to make Michelangelo's 13th birthday a success, everything has to be perfect. Donnie is a master of science, and baking is science, right? How hard can whipping up a few pancakes be? 

The T Subjects by buttsbeyondbutts

Mikey and Don face their worst fears when they're separated from their brothers by ruthless scientists.

brothers = den mothers by Werepirechick

“Just ‘cause you’re bad at cards don’t mean I’m cheating.”

“Lemme see and then I’ll believe you.”

“No.”

“Then you so are cheating-”

A distant sound of something exploding echoes through the walls, and they both go still. Nothing else explodes after a few beats, and Raph and Leo exchange looks.

“Wanna bet that was a Donnie related explosion?” Leo says.

Crossovers

Four-Way Meeting by staringatstars

A mishap results in the turtles being separated from each other, with no one to turn to except other versions of themselves.

[yjwhatif]

FROM THREE TO FOUR…

I wanna start this by saying I’m not someone who hated season 3 - I enjoyed it. It was my first experience watching the show live since I discovered it well after it got cancelled and I’m pretty sure S3 was already green lit to happen when I finished S2. It also pulled me into the fandom world and tumblr - which I am very much grateful for. So a lot of positives came from it… also how can I hate something that spark my unexpected love for a character I never thought we’d see again let alone get actual development for — my dear, dear Eduardo… I love him and it’s all season 3’s fault - literally the one (and only) problem I’m having with s4 is the fact that ED HASN’T TURNED UP YET AND I MISS HIM!!! 🥺Anyway…

While I won’t hate on it - I do acknowledge it had serious problems with a number of elements and with the progress of season 4 - more of those problems come to light in a much clearer way. When the second half of S3 was airing I was actually watching from week to week, after having alway being able to binge watch, this has an effect on the viewing experience. Part of me always wonders if 3A only felt stronger and less problematic because I didn’t have to wait for each episode, also those eps were released 3 at a time to match the structuring of the story arcs - which helps with the sense of pacing. I don’t think the switch from 3 eps a week to 1 was a very good idea (likely not a decision controlled by Greg and Brandon), the episode were fine in the moment, but then you finished and kinda felt like not much had happened - at least I did anyway and I stilling remember that feeling whenever I’m rewatching it now. In pacing terms I think two a week would have felt more substantial for 3b with how it was structured story wise - there would have been enough content without it feeling too little - but still leave you wanting more. The release scheduled for s4 is working a lot better and proves that 1 a week can actually work - something I think is helped by know we’re having 4 episoded character focused arcs. When each episode ends it leaves the mind buzzing with what might happen next but keeps you anchored down within the specific arc. You don’t have the disappointment of spending a week expecting to carry on exploring a certain group or plot but actually getting an episode about something/one entirely different - that works when binging as a whole but not so much on a week to week basis. I’m having no problems this time with the release schedule and am very much with Greg when he says it’s nice to able to sit with an episode for a week over binging it all at once. You can binge it whilst waiting for s5. 🤞

One of the next common problems with S3 was the violence. For me, though I do prefer action/danger explored in a less gory way, I don’t recall ever having much of a reaction to the violence when I originally watched it. However, hearing others talk about it and seeing it more - I absolutely understand the problems with it. Just because you can show as much blood and gore as you want - doesn’t mean you have too or should. A lesson they have seemingly learned with s4. Yes we still have blood and violence - but it is much more fitting for the moment - instead of violence for violence sake. There’s a sense to it, while in S3 you are left thinking - was there maybe another way to portray that. It’s also more spread out at the minute compared to everything always happening to Violet. The imbalance of s3’s violence made the moments where others actually did get hurt forgettable because they were diluted by Violet’s always getting hurt - which takes away the impact these moments should elicit. But thankfully the scales have been reset with s4 and things seem to be going well… for now. I remember a comment I had on the trailer was that there seemed to be a lot of blood present in a number of the shots, part of me was wary of how the circumstances leading to that blood would be portrayed, though, now we’ve seen those moments I am completely satisfied with what they did. The image of that guard essentially turned inside out by Child in the jewellery shop was horrifying yet beautiful all at the same time - it was art - and says so much about Child without even needing to show us the event or her reaction to it. You can just imagine it and understand how much of a threat she is going to be - I am both really excited and absolutely terrified of the trouble she is going to cause. #prayforklarion

Ok so this may be a weird one that only bothered me and might not even make sense - but I’m gonna say it anyway. It’s when they had characters front and centre in scenes but not speaking - it always annoyed me and I still don’t fully understand why. Obviously, because this is animation there are two separate elements that make the physical characters we see - voice and visuals - each of which come with their own costs, so naturally creative decisions have to be made to portray the story in a cost effective way. All of which I have no problem with. The problem I have is that for some reason in season 3 specifically it was really noticeable in a way it shouldn’t have been. Whenever a character wouldn’t speak it always came across as a money decision rather that a character decision which would take me out of the moment… A couple examples are - Tim Drake obviously, it’s kinda become a joke now that Tim never has any lines - which kinda sucks because I think he is a really interesting character. This still hasn’t changed in s4 since he’s had two appearances now and not uttered a sound. Y’know, i don’t think he’s spoken since his “anti-light” comment when Wonder Woman snapped at him - I think Diana left a lasting affect. Tim deserves to speak - I really want to know what’s going inside his head - especially with everything he went through in s3. Then there’s Brion who had it a few times, the dude never shuts up - whether that’s complaining, bragging, moaning, mocking - he always has something to say. So when he’s on that Klarion mission in Cuba and is completely silent, I can’t help but think it’s a little out of character. A similar thing can be said for Bart in that same episode - though an argument could be made that grieving Joan put him in a quiet mood - but we know from Ed that he, Bart and Jaime had be chatting after the funeral - so clearly he wasn’t in that much of a quiet mood. Also he just found out his boyfriend - I mean - Ed is joining the Outsiders and he’s got nothing to say about that - no congratulations - no crash - no nothing. I don’t buy it because it doesn’t fit the characters personality which takes me out of the world I’m watching. Though of course, there are times it does work - like Tim’s leaving Cassie in s3e1 - that worked really well. Also Violet and Vic in s3e26, actually wasn’t too noticeable either - despite their having been pretty important characters throughout the season. I don’t mind them having characters not speak - they’ve done it in the other seasons and it’s never bothered me - but sometimes it just doesn’t fit and that makes me aware I’m watching a show instead of experiencing a world. Anyway, I’m probably the only one bothered by this - so moving on to the s4 counterpoint…

Season 4 seems to have really found it’s footing again since the cancellation hiatus or maybe just got a bigger budget - because it really fixes the problem I had above by giving voices to minor characters. For example, in ep 9, that little bit with Andy (Mist) and Blue Devil talking about why she’s doing Gar’s chores - was so good and makes me happy every time I watch it. Andy has one line and in the one line we get a lot of insight on her - she’s kind and caring enough to tackle that disgusting fridge without argument, it was her choice not Gars request meaning she’s aware of the people around her, she’s seemingly living in the Premier building - if not, spends a lot of time there - to be on the chores rota, she’s settled in as a member of the group which shows a lot of growth since last we saw her in S3 - as well as giving us more information about Gar and introducing Blue Devil… Who actually seems to be a competent Den Mother for once - I love what we saw of him and I would like more please. Anyway, back to my point, by having these smaller characters moments the world feels so much bigger and lived in because our focus characters are interacting with other people and not just spouting out info to an unresponsive face. It feels so like season 2 again and I’m really enjoying that a lot. I want to feel immersed in the world and not aware that I’m watching a screen - because it highlights the skill of the writing/direction and makes for the best experience that leaves you wanting more.

And with that I’m gonna leave it there - a new overly long post about random things which live in my brain. Overall, season 3 had its problems - but it was a show retuning from a long hiatus for a new platform with a different age range and freedom to do things it wasn’t allowed to do before - there’s naturally gonna be a transition period as they regain their footing and find their stride again. Season 4 shows they’ve done that - all the previous problems seem to have been ironed out and fixed to create a much stronger season which still feels connected to its seasons 1&2 roots, whilst also having its own signature style. Let’s hope it continues…

LB

[set-phasers-to-whump]

we’ve got tears so we can weep

prompt: crying

whumpee: eddie diaz

fandom: 911

hi this fic is not very good...i am in a weird mood and this is how it manifested apparently. maybe you will enjoy it tho idk? anyhow this is set in the first half of s3, post tsunami and lawsuit and street fighting but like, immediately post. (title from tears by the tragic thrills)

It’s the smallest thing. 

Bobby has the whole station cleaning the trucks, and the atmosphere is light and happy. It’s a hot summer day, and the physical labor is only adding to the heat, but the cool water is helping. Everyone’s a little damp and a little soapy and they’re chattering away about their lives and it’s a perfectly wonderful scene. 

Bobby is sorting through a pile of assorted items that have been removed from the cabs of the trucks, half-watching his firefighters. He sets aside a still-folded pair of socks and takes a few seconds to look at the truck closest to him.

Eddie’s cleaning the passenger door of this particular truck, and he turns away from his task when a bucket clatters to the ground a few feet away. His right arm keeps moving, and scrapes against a hard metal edge. Eddie pulls it back in surprise, and Bobby sees a red mark already forming on it, beads of blood rising to the surface. 

It must hurt. Bobby watches Eddie’s left hand curl into an angry fist, then slowly uncurl. He smacks the hand against the door, looks for a second like he’s going to get back to work, then drops his rag to the floor. 

Bobby steps closer to Eddie, discarding the socks, and he can see Eddie’s hands start to shake. He moves in still closer, expecting Eddie to back away, to throw up a wall. 

But he doesn’t. He just stands there, and Bobby can hear his breath hitching. He’s blinking rapidly, and there are tears in his eyes, and Bobby knows something is going to happen. He imagines Eddie would prefer not being in front of the entire station when it does, so he carefully reaches out a hand and places it on Eddie’s shoulder. 

Eddie jumps at the contact, and Bobby withdraws his hand, but doesn’t step away. “Let’s go upstairs,” he suggests quietly, and Eddie just nods. 

Eddie spends the whole walk up the stairs and into the loft looking firmly at the ground, and Bobby waves off his other firefighters (who are understandably concerned, and slightly confused). Eddie doesn’t need the attention right now. 

They make it to the couch, and both of them sit down heavily, close enough that they could touch. For a long moment, nothing happens. Eddie’s breath is still hitching and his eyes are still watering and he looks about two seconds away from just breaking down and crying. But he seems determined to not let that happen, and Bobby doesn’t want to force it if Eddie’s not ready. But there’s still blood on his arm, so Bobby decides to focus on that instead. 

He stands and walks over to the kitchen, grabbing the first aid kit that sits beneath the sink. He dampens a few paper towels as well, then returns to the couch. 

“I’m going to clean up that scrape, okay?” Bobby says. Eddie nods once, and Bobby gently grabs his arm and gets to work. 

He wipes the damp paper towels across the scrape until the blood is gone. No new blood rises to the surface, and Bobby can see that the actual injuries are small - mostly, there’s just reddened skin, with the occasional very small bloodred scrape, all across the outer side of Eddie’s forearm. 

Bobby carefully applies an antibiotic cream to the little scrapes, leaving them unbandaged. It’s a quick process, and should be fairly painless, but when he looks at Eddie and tells him that it’s done, he realizes Eddie’s crying. 

It’s not the pain of the scrape making him cry, Bobby knows. It’s everything else that’s been going on in Eddie’s life over the past several months. Shannon’s death. Christopher being caught in the tsunami. Buck being caught in the tsunami. The lawsuit. The street fighting. All of this, plus the everyday stress of the job. It’s enough to make anyone cry. Even Eddie. 

For a second, Bobby just sits there, not exactly sure of what to do. Eddie doesn’t cry, and yet here he is, sitting on the couch, tears rolling down his cheeks, shuddery breaths pushing out through his lungs. Bobby doesn’t want to do anything to make him uncomfortable, to make him feel like he has to hide this, and so he simply sits and doesn’t do anything. 

But after a few seconds of just sitting there not doing anything but watching Eddie cry, listening to the soft sobs that he is doing his best to muffle, Bobby’s instincts win out over his desire to let Eddie handle this himself (the way that Eddie tends to handle everything). 

He reaches out an arm and wraps it around Eddie’s shoulders, slowly and deliberately, giving Eddie all the time in the world to pull away. 

He expects that pull away, and is more than a little surprised when Eddie instead does the exact opposite - he leans into Bobby and buries his face in his shoulder and grabs onto his shirt with both hands. 

Bobby doesn’t show his surprise, and responds only by holding on a little tighter and then just not moving. He lets Eddie cry, feeling his shoulder grow damp. 

For several minutes, they sit like this, Eddie crying into Bobby’s shoulder, his whole body shaking. This has been a long time coming, Bobby thinks. A long time. He imagines Eddie has several months worth of tears, of pain, of grief, in him. 

Those several months are condensed into maybe fifteen minutes. Eventually, his crying peters out, but Eddie doesn’t move, apart from his hands slightly relaxing their grip on Bobby’s shirt. He breathes deeply, sniffs, then presses his head further into Bobby’s shoulder, almost like he’s hiding. 

Bobby lets him. He doesn’t mind staying like this, for as long as Eddie needs. He knows how hard Eddie has had it these past few months, and he knows from personal experience that carrying all of the pain and anger and guilt and grief around without ever putting it down only leads to one thing - breaking. 

But breaking means that you can be put back together again. And Eddie has an entire team of people behind him who can help him do exactly that. Starting right now, with Bobby, who doesn’t plan on moving until the alarm goes off and he’s called into action to help someone else. But for the time being, he’ll hold on to Eddie for as long as he needs.

thanks for reading! i had a lot of fun this month and i hope you enjoyed whichever fics you happened to read :)!