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partysheart-archived · 2 years

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@flayerlinked asked: [ RAIN ] [ listen, everyone talks about byler having a kiss in the rain to parallel their fight in s3 and….. /i agree/ 👀 ] [ RAIN ]: sender reveals their love for the receiver while they’re both standing outside in the pouring rain. 𝙄 𝙇𝙊𝙑𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐" 𝙋𝙍𝙊𝙈𝙋𝙏𝙎. (𝙎𝙁𝙒 𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉.) | selectively accepting!

‘it’s not my fault you don’t like girls!’

here they were again—fighting. always fighting…these days, at least. it wasn’t like this in the past. mike missed those days; back before their world got flipped upside down—pun unintended. since will had gone missing in ‘83, things had been different. they weren’t the same kids anymore and as time had gone on, things had only gotten more and more strained between them. they were supposed to be best friends forever, and yet, they’d had far more fights and struggles between one another than any ‘best friends’ should ever have. mike swore that he never had as many issues between dustin or lucas; they never fought as much as mike did with will. and mike would have wandering thoughts as to why that might be, but the moment they’d begin to rear their ugly head, mike would squash them down and shove them into the deep recesses of his mind. he didn’t want to think about them—he couldn’t.

they were getting harder and harder to ignore, however. and will had been acting weirder and weirder. first it was will ignoring him in california, letting mike believe that the painting was for some girl—even if unintentional—until two whole days later, and pushing him towards el so hard that mike knew for certain that he was right to shove his feelings down. will wouldn’t want him anyway—will wanted to see mike and el get back together. he didn’t see mike in that way and mike couldn’t blame him. who ever would? hell, even eleven didn’t want him anymore—having broken up with him a day after arriving back in hawkins. and with el out of the picture, mike’s shoved down feelings weren’t going to be able to stay quiet forever. but if will didn’t like him, if will didn’t even want to be his friend—well, what was the point in even acknowledging those feelings?

“ what’s your problem ? ” mike asked, incredulously, brow furrowed. despite knowing will like the back of his hand, he was incredibly hard to read at times. “ why’ve you been acting so— so WEIRD ? what did i do, huh ? ” to say that he was fed up with this back and forth was a bit of an understatement.

now was hardly the time for this—the grey clouds overhead, accompanied by the rolling of thunder in the distance that just kept getting louder and louder; the telltale signs of an impending storm—but mike couldn’t bring himself to budge. they needed to deal with this once and for all.

“i’m in love with you!”

a crack could be heard rippling throughout the sky, adding emphasis to will’s words, before an onslaught of rain began to come down all around them. mike was so stunned he was too frozen to move; only staring in pure shock at will’s confession.

“ what—?! ” he asked, trying to speak over the rain when he could finally find his voice. “ but—no—! no way ! you—you never said—you were— ” he hated that he was floundering but he couldn’t help himself. mike forced himself to pause and take a breath before asking, “ then why did you keep pushing me away—?! ” he couldn’t mask the pain in his voice if he tried.

#flayerlinked #i wrote so much but it still isn't any good dlfjdlskfjds #&&. ask prompt.#&&. ic.#&&. answered.#cw long post// ////

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nullanythorm-ao3 · 4 years

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Just Some Random Fanfic Concepts

So I was going to wait and see if anyone else was interested in me posting up some of my general fanfic ideas. However, I’m bored and struggling to work with the CiM update I’m working on right now. So I’m just going to do it? Also, a heads up to look out for another post coming later, because I want to share some of my Variro YouTube playlist, too. BUT FIRST, story ideas. You’ll get some working titles for the ones I HAVE working titles for, but otherwise I’m just winging it cuz there are a lot of them. These are in no particular order. Things being higher or lower on the list doesn’t mean they’re more or less likely to be worked on.

#1 - A continuation for Land or Sea (title pending)

So a little background on this one. I got the idea for this one at the same time as I got the idea for Trust is Something Earned. I put which one I worked on first up to a vote on the Tangled Amino.

It’s a mermaid(merman/boy??)!Varian AU that centers on the idea: What if, in Queen for a Day, instead of coming up with a solution that created the amber when interacting with the rocks, Varian creates a different one and winds up getting himself turned into a mermaid instead?

It’ll feature 4 OCs: two created by me, and two created by a friend. The perspective will shift between Varian and an OC that belongs to a friend of mine named Charlotte, Varian’s childhood friend and love interest.

Without spoiling too much, it takes place primarily during the events of season 2 (and maybe stretches into season 3). It switches perspective between Varian, who’s sent to live in the ocean after the accident and becomes friends with an adventurous merboy named Caspian who helps him rediscover his passion for science and alchemy, and Charlotte, who’s left behind in Corona and is trying to rediscover her sense of self and direction after losing her best and only friend. Charlotte’s perspective will help show how the premise changes events in Corona, while Varian’s is wholly original.

The other OCs that will be involved in the story will be my OC Adrian Claire, who followers of TiSE will know, and my friend’s OC Henry.

#2 - Stitched Together (originated from Ragdoll)

Okay so the original premise for this was for it to be a Variro story. The focus was Hiro living a double life: a college student in San Fransokyo who realized the existence of the several magical realms that ran parallel to his home after discovering he had magical blood passed down from his mother (maybe even throwing in superhero and making it a triple life - poor Hiro). He finds what’s known in the multi-realm as a living doll - a doll that gained a soul either through devotion and affection of a previous owner and desire to become more human, or having a human soul literally shoved into it.

Varian, his doll, is the latter. Due to crimes against his home realm of Corona and his own uncontrollable magical talent, they forced him into having his soul magically “stitched” into a rag doll, until Hiro’s magical talent allowed him to awaken. However, because of his nature as a living doll, Varian now depends on and is subservient to Hiro, but the two soon grow a bond much closer than expected.

Now, after working on the lore and world of the story, I’ve grown its scope a little. Rather than simply being a crossover with Tangled and Big Hero 6, I want Stitched Together to be a bigger-scale crossover, including How To Train Your Dragon and the Tales of Arcadia series as well.

It’s going to be Hiccup/Hiro/Varian, along with Jim/Claire from ToA being close friends with the trio. They’re all going to be young wizards from different realms, with different magic specialties studying in Arcanum, the central realm that connects all magically advanced realms. Other characters from each series will show up as well! You’ll see a bit of all of them, it’s a pretty enormous project.

#3 - Maybe some Hogwarts Shenanigans?

I’d really like to do a short, maybe 7-chapter story on the Hogwarts Headcanons for the OT3 I did a while back. The big issue is I’m still trying to figure out where I stand on posting Harry Potter/Hogwarts content after the whole J.K. Rowling thing.

It’d be a chapter focusing on each year the three spend at Hogwarts together, some key moments through the years, and things like that. Just a small, random story about some kids at Hogwarts having fun.

Might do it, might not, we’ll see.

#4 - Time Travel Variro Fic (title pending)

This is another one sort of meant to run alongside season 2 of TTS, and maybe s3. It also replaces the S3 of BH6 the series. Just cuz.

Basically Varian escapes after being put in prison, and decides the best way to save his dad is prevent the amber from capturing him all together. Vindictive, feral little villain raccoon decides that if he can’t have his happy ending, he won’t let Raps have hers and plans to make a time machine so he can go back and prevent Eugene from rescuing Raps.

Unfortunately, a slight user error and hiccup in his plans (namely the fact that Ruddiger doesn’t appreciate being left alone and hops in the machine with him and all the noise and flashing lights of a steampunk-medieval time machine spook him) causes him to catapult into the future instead.

Meanwhile, Hiro’s dealing with his friends moving on to find work, his own internship at KreiTech while attending school, and being fifteen and struggling with hormones and his sexuality finally starting to rear its ugly head after being dormant for 15 years of being in an ongoing relationship with SCIENCE (aka he’s seeing guys, thinking ‘he’s cute/handsome’, and he’s PANICKING). Then, as he’s on his way home from internship one day, a random af raccoon tugs at his pants leg until he finds a boy in weird clothes unconscious in an alley somewhere

Varian, after being woken up, and unsure if he should bring up that he’s from the past or not, makes up a fake story about running away from a small town. Hiro, feeling there’s something more but empathetic to Varian’s story, invites him to stay with him at the Lucky Cat and introduces him to Cass.

Varian is stand-offish at first, absorbed in his “pet project”, as he calls it around Hiro. Basically, the machine didn’t time travel with him, he’s stuck, and is determined to get home and continue his plan. Hiro, however, is drawn in by the mysterious boy and tries to reach out to him and open him up.

Varian catches on to modern technology and science pretty darn quickly. He’s a smart boy. He also stays holed up in Hiro’s lab or the room they allowed him to borrow reading all day. Until finally Hiro cracks him out of his shell, he starts attending SFIT, and meets the rest of the BH6 crew.

There’s more to the story than this but that’s all I’m saying for now. Lots of drama, tension, etc, and just a fun time as boys discover their sexualities, learn where they can call home, and all that good stuff.

#5 - In Someone Else’s Shoes (Time Travel Team Awesome Fic!)

So this one is kind of meant to work in tandem with the Variro fic. While the Variro fic explores Varian failing in his plan and getting catapulted into the future, this fic shows the results of what would happen if the time travel worked.

It centers around Team Awesome! Varian travels back to the past, and tells Eugene that he dies if he hides in the tower. He convinces him that he’s his partner in his future, by knowing his name and stroking his ego a bit. But inform him that the crown will lead to nothing but trouble and his death (conveniently leaving out the part where he meets the love of his life and gets brought back from the dead because of a magical healing flower).

The alteration to the timeline erases the former Varian’s existence and overwrites the Varian of the new timeline with his memories - giving him the memories of both the former and current timeline. He wakes up in bed at the palace, being woken up by his personal attendant Flynn (Eugene, who only allows Varian to call him by his proper name when they’re alone) and told to get ready for his coronation as crown prince. It turns out, in this timeline, because Eugene and Rapunzel weren’t there to stop him from his running water experiments, the devastation on Old Corona caused the death of his dad and several others. Since he was the son of an old friend, and they longed for their missing princess, Frederic and Arianna take him in as their son, and monitor his scientific hobby to prevent him from causing more trouble.

Of course, this won’t do. He confides the truth to Eugene, that he was trying to save his dad by returning to the past (but again, keeping out key elements), and the two decide to work together to rebuild the time machine and alter the past without the catastrophic results.

Won’t spoil too much, there are some wild twists and turns here. But it’s one I’m really looking forward to, again!

#6 - Maybe some Percy Jackson/Camp Half-Blood shenanigans

I’d just really like to make some Camp Half-Blood AU stuff. It’d be more a series of one-shots, or just a story that jumps around in time in the course of it.

Crossover with Tangled, Big Hero 6, Tales of Arcadia, and How to Train Your Dragon with a focus on (as usual) Hiccup/Hiro/Varian.

Not going to say too much about it though, because I want to do an AU Headcanons post with some details on this one! I have lots of ideas.Some you might expect, some you might not.

#7 - Hercules Inspired Variro Fic (Title pending!)

So this one is wild. Basically, after the events of BH6 s1, Obake escapes. He stays on the run, escaping to Germany, and finds a young boy of genius on par with Hiro, but in the field of Chemistry, and takes him under his wing.

Varian is distraught after his father, who’d contracted an incurable disease, falls comatose. The government does nothing to help him, even though he has friends that hold political power, and Obake uses that to lure him into becoming his protege.

The pair lie low for a while, wreaking a little havoc in Germany while Varian looks for a cure for his father. The boy dabbles in all manner of fields while trying to help his dad, and before long finds out that the last component he needs is in America, in San Fransokyo.

Varian, now in his early 20s (which means Hiro is too!), Varian travels to America. He’s currently working as a villain under Obake while daylighting as the head of a German medical research company.

He meets Hiro by chance. He flirts a little, but tries his best to keep his distance while trying to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, Obake notices how flustered Hiro gets around Varian, and has Varian continue flirting with and pursuing him as a form of distraction, and confides in him about Big Hero 6 and their identities. Varian is against it at first, but goes along with his mentor.

Varian continues flirting with Hiro, gets in with the group as a friend, and begins distracting Hiro and sabotaging Big Hero 6 while working on a plan to steal the last component he needs for his cure - a solution being stored under high security at KreiTech - where Hiro works, partnered with Krei.

It’s Hercules inspired so there’s a bit more to it, but that’s all you need to know for now!

#8 - Phantom Thief Varian! (Title Pending)

Similar to the time travel one, this one KIND of links with the Hercules-inspired one. It’s not necessarily meant to link narratively or thematically, like the two time travel fics, but it has some similarities.

Namely the fact that Varian came to America after forming a company to research a cure for his terminally ill father. Whether or not Quirin is comatose in this one, I don’t know.

But it’s hard for a small company to get the influence or money Varian would need for his research. So, he steals valuables and rare compounds and materials to fund his research and keep him going, under the name “der Waschbär”, which Google Translate tells me means “the Raccoon” so I’m rolling with it.

He meets Varian in a business meeting with KreiTech, or one of those fancy business parties or something along those lines. They become infatuated with each other pretty quickly (as adults that are more sexually aware, I always picture these two precocious kids being pretty flirtatious when attracted to someone so they just kind of click pretty quickly).

It’s basically the story of Varian, the charming phantom thief who worms his way into Hiro’s life, and Hiro, the superhero aiding the cops in his capture. All while being completely oblivious to each other’s identities and flirting/pursuing each other constantly on the side xD I just like phantom thief stories okay?

#9 - POKEMON!!!!!

Yeah, I still want to do something with these pokemon headcanons

I’m still not entirely sure what kind of pokemon thing I’d want to do. Similarly to the other ones centered around my headcanon posts, it would probably be something I write in short bursts or one-shots and such.

I’m not sure if I want to do something focusing solely on Corona as a region and the Tangled Characters, or continuing the Hiccup/Hiro/Varian that the headcanons focus on.

#10 - The VTuber AU

Yes, I’m doing this! I’ve fallen neck-deep into the VTuber pit, and I love the idea of a VTuber Varian. I feel like his avatar is probably a combined effort between him and Rapunzel, who would probably be the artist behind his character. He’s probably an independent VTuber, streaming on his own with his own model - either because he was genuinely curious about the boom and wanted to try it, or due to the influence of his friends (whether a bet or something along those lines).

As stated in a previous post, I feel like his vtuber character is super steampunk, and probably raccoon-temed. There are a lot of VTubers that use the animal-ear look after all. His VTubing character is super chaotic, and tends to fly solo when streaming.

Hiro is a pretty big gamer himself, but never got big into VTubers. He felt it was just a fad attached to regular streamers, and never really got into watching other people play games, so vtubers make it even weirder really.

He was looking for help getting past a certain point in a hard game, though, and in his search came across Varian(in the fic, his VTuber identity will have a separate name! I just haven’t htought of one yet) streaming the game, and stuck around to see what he did in that part, and wound up staying because he was chaotic and fun to watch. Before long, he realized he was watching clips from previous streams and catching his streams regularly. The others start teasing him about it.

Meanwhile, Varian, who’s recently joined in with the group after having started SFIT the year or semester after Varian (maybe Year, since Hiro can be watching it while the others graduate and start looking for work, since he doesn’t really have any other friends in SFIT so he just kind of falls into it to pass time)

Still dunno how he figures out Varian is a VTuber, and whether it’s before or after they start planning though. I just rcreated this one it has work to do.

Anyway that’s about it. There’s probably a few smaller ones I put off to the side of my brain for the time being that didn’t get added here. I forget which ones I start planning a lot and I almost never write them down, I just plan them in my brain as I go and the ones that stick are just keepers. Hope you like these though! Curious to see what everyone things and which of the ideas the, like, 20 of you that follow me like.

#fanfiction #concepts #fanfic ideas #TTS #Tangled #Big Hero 6 #How To Train Yoru Dragon #Tales of Arcadia

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

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(1/2) One thing I saw during the episode that I haven't seen people talk about (although I may have just missed it) is how the bartender is talking to Sam, and convincing him that they should leave, and how people get sucked into staying longer, for just one more game. Sam is concerned that Dean will fall into that trap but Dean insists on playing anyway. I get that Sam was concerned - preforming Dean is all about excess, food, women, alcohol etc.

(2/2) And Sam has only ever seen preforming Dean. However, Dean was the one willing and able to walk away once he hit his target, and Sam was the one who bought into the "just one more game" sucker bet. I found that interesting and shows another example of how Sam doesn't really know Dean. It also shows how much Dean has grown since the last time he gambled with his life.

Yeah, and how Dean isn’t quite so willing to just throw his life away. I mean, let’s think of the last few times Dean’s been through this (or at least similar parallel situations that I believe the narrative is playing off of now):

-Dean taking on the Mark of Cain. No second thought, not even bothering to ask about the unwanted side effects, even when Cain warned him that the Mark came with a terrible cost. Dean had been willing to pay it, whatever it was. Because he was “poison” and this was the one last thing he could do, damn the consequences.

(though at that point Sam had essentially renounced him as his brother over the Gadreel mess, Cas was human for a hot second but angeled himself up again to be prepared to fight the angel wars, and the only thing Dean felt he had to fight for was getting rid of Abaddon)

-Dean perfectly willing to die to save an asylum full of tortured ghosts, because he’d failed to save anyone-- Mary, Cas, even the one kid he couldn’t reach to help earlier in this episode. He’d fully expected to be dragged to the Empty, but not until he’d bargained to free all those ghosts.

(though at that point Dean had reached his lowest point after Cas’s death, and he didn’t want to go on living... until that final scene of the episode where Cas came back...)

-Dean’s rather self-destructive streak back in s3, after he sold his soul and had only a year to live. I mean, even Dean selling his soul in exchange for Sam’s life in the first place demonstrates this sort of lack of care for himself that Sam seemed to be expecting from Dean in 15.11.

(though at that point Dean was struggling with A Lot of direct self-worth issues pushed on him by John, and it’s confronting that burden directly that begins to finally shift the tide for Dean personally)

But to Sam, in-story, even “smaller” gestures of this sort tend to be framed as Dean’s bravado, or Dean having impulse control issues... and I don’t know if it’s entirely a “performing Dean” issue, versus a “Sam’s selective perception” issue, you know? I mean, Dean had sacrificed himself repeatedly throughout the series to ensure that he and Sam had food, shelter, etc. We’ve seen a selection of his FAILURES to provide that, but those have also been framed as Notable Exceptions to the Winchester status quo that Dean mostly was able to maintain, or Sam would never have been able to develop so many misconceptions about Performing Dean in the first place, you know? Things like Dean “losing their food money” gambling it away in 9.07, for example. It became relevant to the story because it was specifically framed as an outlier to the norm of their lives. It’s also framed as something Sam explicitly did not know about, at all, until years later when the current events of 9.07 unfolded. It was always framed TO HIM as “Dean ran away. No reason given.” So in that light, the impression that Dean was irresponsible in this way was reinforced, to deflect responsibility from John. It was a lose-lose situation for Dean, and he agreed to play along with the tarnishing of his own character in Sam’s eyes if it meant protecting Sam from the horrible truth.

No wonder Sam has a hard time grasping reality and separating out the fantasy or his own mistaken beliefs, you know?

Sam has just had a lifetime of training believing that this was inherent to Dean’s personality, this impulsiveness and... for lack of a better term, lack of self-interest in moments like this, or possibly undeserved overconfidence in his own ability. Which is just freaking sad for Dean. Sam still believes (or wants to believe) that he is the “smart” one, or possibly the “level-headed” one. This was specifically the lever that Ruby used to drive a wedge between Sam and Dean in s4, you know? “Dean’s not strong enough,” or “Dean is weak and broken,” or even “Dean doesn’t understand the bigger picture like you do, Sam.”

Despite Sam’s acknowledgement that Dean actually IS a great hunter, such as in 8.14, and the ongoing proof that Sam does put a lot of trust in Dean throughout the series, this little kernel of doubt lingers and rears its ugly head frequently enough for it to have become a recurring theme between them.

Dean’s stated support of Sam’s understanding of the events of 15.09, and his choice to NOT cast that spell to lock Chuck away, despite everything it cost them in that moment. But as a result, it also saved the one thing we’ve been shown Dean can’t live without-- Cas. And I don’t know that’s something Sam fully understands himself yet... despite it being a key feature of the vision of the horrific future Chuck showed him. Because Chuck clearly showed a difference between Sam and Jody and Bobby having gone full berserker vengeance mode, but Dean? Dean had just... resigned... hopeless. Sam doesn’t really understand that aspect of Dean yet, which makes me think it’s something he will, by necessity, have to learn. It’s been a really long time since Dean was all about hedonistic excess, despite the seeming singular example the show keeps pushing in our faces of Dean’s apparently lack of self-control when it comes to food.

He’s still seemingly on the self-indulgent gluttony train, but even this goes directly back to the underlying issue that drove him to all of the anomalous events of 9.07′s backstory. Providing food for Sam, at risk to himself. That was the failure underlying that whole mess of lies-- Dean vs Food Insecurity. It’s honestly no wonder that Dean still has this all or nothing mentality when faced with an abundance of his favorite foods. I mean, this even goes back to 1.18, where he sacrificed his own food to Sam to indulge Sam as a kid. He’d always just been resigned to the fact that his nutritional needs came second, and there’s been essays on that subject written over and over for the last 15 years.

With Jack currently “consuming power,” and that seeming like something he will be facing more and in different ways as Billie’s plan for him comes to light, I think they will tie it to Dean’s literal food issues, and Sam’s issues with “purity” and “becoming strong enough,” as well as Cas’s willingness to self-sacrifice to protect his loved ones... and then be tossed over entirely as all of these issues resolve by the end.

Nine episodes... and a lot of individual and group dynamic issues to resolve, yes?

#spn s15 speculation #spn 15.11 #spn 9.07 #spn 1.18 #spn 9.11 #spn 8.14 #spn 13.05 #spn 3.07 #performing dean #sam sympathizes and dean empathizes #castiel winchester #Anonymous

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tb5-heavenward · 5 years

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I'm very curious to read your thoughts on What Was Wrong With Lost Kingdom

you know, I did hope you would be and I think you so very much for asking

so!

To put it simply, what was wrong with Lost Kingdom is that it should have been Tunnels of Time 2. They had all of the same pieces, they were at approximately the same place in their second season, and it would have been the perfect excuse to take the themes and concepts and characters from Tunnels of Time, and repeat and reinforce them.

This is something that tends to be wrong with a lot of TAG episodes that otherwise have a lot of potential: the writers don’t know when to lean into repeating their ideas. Or reiterating their ideas. Or revisiting, reimagining, regurgitating, reinforcing, reducing reusing recycling their ideas.

Tunnels of Time should have been to Lost Kingdom what Runaway was to Hyperspeed, and you better believe I’m gonna elaborate. Under a cut.

A QUICK REFRESHER ON THE COMMON ELEMENTS SHARED BY RUNAWAY AND HYPERSPEED

here are some key points shared between Runaway and Hyperspeed

A Runaway Train that Goes Extra Super Fast

Scott

Brains

The line, word for word, “It would be like hitting a brick wall”

this is how you know that they knew exactly what they were doing

An All Hope Is Lost moment

A Last Second Hail Mary Solution

A silly, soft ending

Japan

Other Things I’m Sure

They are, at a fundamental level, the same episode. The basic problem is the same in both, even if the cause and the ways they approach and solve it are different, the same sorts of things happen. What those similarities do is allow us to measure the differences in the way the same problem they had then is approached by these characters now. It allows us to perceive the ways the show has changed on a technical level---Hyperspeed LOOKS fucking amazing. The sense of danger in Runaway doesn’t quite compare, at least in part because the visuals aren’t yet as finely honed. They’ve come a really long way, in more ways than one.

Because Scott is still the same action hero type he always is, and he recognizes that this is a problem that he can’t solve without Brains---but he’s also matured past the point of forcing Brains out into the field with him and expecting the same level of performance. Brains is allowed to provide a proxy for his presence that’s more effective than he ever could be (this is something that was first established in Recharge), and it legitimately helps save the day.

As an extension of that, when they come up to that moment in the episode where they’re nearing the point of no return, and the question of whether or not they’ll be able to pull this off rears its ugly, predictable head, Scott doesn’t step to the controls to put his hand on the button that’ll slam on the brakes and kill them all---basically forcing Brains in both the literal and the narrative sense to rise to the occasion and save the day---instead he steps into that moment himself, and insists that there IS no point of no return, there is no moment when all hope is lost, he believes that it’s always possible to push through to the other side of a problem. And that last second miracle happens, and it’s happily ever after again.

Watch the two episodes back to back sometime, and look for repeated themes. If I had time I would do a side by side comparison of the two (and I’ve wanted to do an in-depth rewatch of the series for ages now, and maybe I should do one ep a day or something to get me back into the swing of things), but the parallels are all obvious that even just a casual surface viewing should be enough to pick them out. Runaway was a good episode. Hyperspeed is a great episode, because it got to stand on Runaway’s shoulders.

Now. On to the question of Lost Kingdom.

What I said at the time was specifically this:

What is deeply and immensely frustrating is that, in the time since I said this, the writers and the series have proven that they know how to do this. Runaway and Hyperspeed, remember. They have done it to brilliant, absolutely flawless effect, with a pair of episodes that run in parallel to each other, and in doing so reinforce fundamental truths while simultaneously demonstrating growth. Anyway.

A QUICK REFRESHER ON THE COMMON ELEMENTS SHARED BY TUNNELS OF TIME AND LOST KINGDOM

Old, ruined temple of an ancient civilization

Really, just gorgeously rendered models for both, these two are definitely spiritual sisters in at least a visual sense.

Getting trapped in the old, ruined temple of an ancient civilization

Penelope

Specifically, Penelope interceding on behalf of World Heritage in the case of somebody fucking around with something of historical significance.

Parker

Parker is at his best when employed as a Greek Chorus.

Gordon

notably, Gordon fresh off the events of Up From the Depths and preciously protective of his lil yellow sub. this isn’t relevant, it’s just really sweet how worried he gets.

Peril

Water

Self-Absorbed and Self-Aggrandizing Asshole Jeopardizing Everyone Else for His Own Ends

Big Golden MacGuffin

ELEMENTS DEEPLY UNNECESSARY TO LOST KINGDOM BUT INCLUDED ANYWAY FOR SOME FUCKING REASON

Brains

MAX

Sorry

no, i’m not

brains got plenty of air time in S2

go away brains

come on,

I know S1 was Kayo’s season.

And I know S2 was Brains’.

And it looks like S3 is shaping up to be Penelope’s.

But Brains was really extraneous here, and the themes they chose for him were weaksauce compared to what they could’ve been for Gordon and Penelope.

who puts gordon and penelope in an episode together and doesn’t further the groundwork of their relationship

honestly

who does that

i wouldn’t have done that

if you’re not familiar with my biases and agendas by now, you should leave

The above is a bit tangential, but if you pare those elements out, what you have instead is an episode that cleaves almost exactly to what Tunnels of Time was, in the same way Hyperspeed does to Runaway. If Brains is no longer there to take the focus, then the focus necessarily falls on Gordon and Penelope. And, crucially, Gordon and Penelope vs. Madelaine and Francois LeMaire.

Here’s the thing with Gordon and Penelope vs Madelaine and Francois: Gordon is 100% the Madelaine and Penelope is 100% the Francois. And this episode should have been about these two couples echoing each other, and laying some serious groundwork for what a relationship between Gordon and Penny could be about.

Because one’s always going to find a reason to be in the collapsing ancient temple, and the other is always going to be the one running in after.

And the problem for me in talking about this episode is that I want to talk about the version that exists exclusively in my head. I want the episode where Penelope’s the one who’s chased LeMaire further into Atlantis towards the Solarkytheria (not BRAINS ffs), and Gordon and Madelaine are both left with no choice but to go after them, as the cautious, sensible better halves of these relationships. I want Penelope and LeMaire yelling at each other about exploration vs preservation, and Madelaine and Gordon in the background both trying to make it clear that they really need to leave.

As the episode is, it’s too far from what could’ve been to remap exactly onto Tunnels of Time, but if it had been patterned after it more closely, what I most would’ve wanted would’ve been a moment between Penelope and Francois, forced into FAB1 together in order to bail out, and her like, chewing him out for being so selfish and self-aggrandizing, and him suggesting that she had no moral obligation to follow him in, and that she must have had her own motivations, and maybe the pair of them aren’t so different after all.

And Gordon and Madelaine in TB4 right behind them, having a conversation of their own to the tune of “no offense, but your husband is a reckless asshole and I don’t know why you put up with this”. And her telling him why, and making it clear that when you love someone, you don’t really have a choice but to follow them when they need you. That’s the sort of thing that would really land with Gordon.

Gahhhh, I wish I had articulated all of this when it was still fresher in my head. It’s currently closing in on half past midnight and I need to be awake again in six hours (it’s fine), but all I know for sure right now is that these thoughts were much clearer in my head when they weren’t two years old. Anyway! now it is closing on 1AM, so I had better get to bed. Thanks for asking

#shinygoku

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darklygophilia · 7 years

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Hello I would love your opinion on that double date tommy and LL had with oliver and Helena in season 1. I get the impression that LL was marking her territory so to speak even though she didn't notice how uncomfortable tommy looked. Poor guy he deserved better.

Well, let me just say, back in S1 I was all for the Merlance ship. Tommy clearly cared for AND loved Laurel. She gave him a reason to grow up & be an adult. And Tommy made Laurel likable. The scenes Laurel was with Tommy, I actually liked. Not just b/c Laurel & Tommy actually had chemistry (unlike Lauriver which, well…did NOT) but the writing between the two of them was spot on. It’s my firm belief that people shouldn’t change themselves for someone else, you should still be allowed to be yourself. That’s why Lauriver never worked, & never could work, b/c Laurel was always pushing Ollie to become better when that was really something he should’ve done all on his own (plus, Ollie clearly wasn’t ready to become better, he had to do that all on his own). Tommy chose to change, he came to that conclusion all on his own, & it wasn’t even all about Laurel. Remember that scene when Tommy is asking Laurel’s opinion on throwing that charity ball for CNRI, he talks about how he was tired of the emotionless existence he was living. He came to the conclusion that he wanted more all on his own, it just so happened he wanted more with Laurel.

It’s when the change happens all on its own & for the better of THAT person, when it’s best. Ollie changed into Oliver long before he came back from his five years of hell. However, whenever he was around Sara or Laurel, Ollie would rear his ugly head (& hair) & he’d revert back temporarily to pre-island-Ollie. He was only ever fully Oliver when he wasn’t around Laurel (which says something, IMO). His change happened in part b/c of the Island, as well as Digg & Felicity’s influence - but, still, the change happened b/c Oliver wanted to change. He never wanted to grow up with Laurel, if anything her constant forgiveness & ignoring his behavior downright enabled it. That’s why Lauriver never worked.

So, yeah in S1, despite that double date with Oliver/Helena & Tommy/Laurel where, yes - I agree - it did feel like she was marking her territory (to answer your question), I still felt like Merlance was good for each other. Just like Olicity was good for each other. In S2 it felt like Laurel was addressing her own guilt over betraying Tommy (in an entirely self-destructive way) through her addiction. However, as the series went on, & as Laurel CONTINUED to pine for Ollie in the shadows, Merlance became less romantic & far more tragic. At least in regards to Tommy, b/c he did deserve better. Laurel didn’t love him! By the end of S3 (& after re-watching S1) Merlance felt more like it was Laurel’s way of trying to get back at Oliver.

Between the Merlance ship, Tommy was the only one that was actually committed to the relationship. Yes, I do believe that if you’re with someone, but you’re wishing you were with someone else, or thinking about someone else in a romantic way (Laurel pining for Ollie) then THAT is a form of mental cheating! I don’t mean in a strict sense. Despite being with someone, we all (every now & then) check out a guy/girl that passes by. But, that’s it. We are only human after all. But, Laurel was actively pining for someone else when she was supposed to be in a committed relationship with Tommy. Think of “Gone With the Wind” - Scarlett was married to Rhett, but she spent their entire marriage actively pining for Ashley (that’s what I’d call mental cheating). When it’s THAT constant, than yes it’s a problem in a relationship. Which is why I could never feel sorry or sympathize with Laurel over Ollie cheating on her with Sara (or anyone else for that matter). B/c 1) Laurel proved to be just as much a liar & just as manipulative as Ollie; & 2) Laurel willingly entered (& downright encouraged) a love triangle between two BFFs who were practically brothers (hell, Tommy/Oliver share a half-sister, the the parallel is sound). Then at the end of S1, after she’s spent multiple episodes claiming her love for Tommy & how she wants them to get back together, how she wants them to work as a couple - then she just (quite literally) falls into Ollie’s arms the moment he shows up. After going to Tommy & practically begging him to come back! Laurel proved she was no better than Ollie & Sara!

With all that said, yes, it did feel like that particular double date was awkward. Not just b/c Oliver was trying to respect Laurel’s decision to be with Tommy (if you re-watch that scene, Laurel’s the one bringing up all those Lauriver memories, not Oliver) but b/c Laurel is clearly uncomfortable with Ollie dating someone else. Which isn’t fair to Tommy or Oliver. I always felt like Laurel was right on par with Lana Lang from Smallville. She doesn’t like Ollie lying to her & keeping secrets b/c then she doesn’t want to be with him, but she also doesn’t want any other woman to have him. Lana was the same way with Clark - she hated that he kept secrets/lied & therefore she couldn’t be with him, but she also didn’t like it when he was with any other woman. Essentially, she didn’t want him, but no one else could have him either. How is that fair? It’s not!

By the end of S4, my stance on Merlance was altered yet again! We learn that Laurel shows absolutely NO guilt over Tommy’s death (he died to save her, for fucks sake), & she doesn’t even have any guilt over betraying him. Also, before this gets pinned on the show writers, this one is entirely on KC herself. It’s been told by the writers & producers that KC had a lot of input during her final episodes in S4. She’s the one that came up with that horrible line about Ollie still being the love of Laurel’s life. Essentially, KC wanted Laurel to mean something for Ollie, she wanted laurel to have some impact on his life, which is why Tommy’s character is entirely railroaded in 4x18/4x19.

It’s revealed that Laurel begins her addiction not b/c of any guilt over Tommy, or even heartbreak over loosing him. Nope! It’s all b/c Ollie left her (again). Not only does this put her right on par with “Twilight’s” Bella Swan (a girl who wanted to kill herself just b/c her boyfriend dumped her), but it also took away any chance that Laurel could ever be a genuine, strong, empowering female character. Just look at her arc throughout the entirety of the show: S1 was all about being a love interest in a tug of war between two guys, S2 was all about Tommy’s death & getting revenge, S3 was all about Sara’s death & getting revenge as well as blaming Ollie for practically everything, S4 was all about her dying b/c of her father & Dhark, S5 she was just the trophy wife in Ollie’s fantasy world. Seriously, not a single arc was about her as a woman, or a person. It was all about other characters in her life, almost all of which were guys. That’s not empowering that Laurel (the writers) made her life center around men (Ollie, Tommy, her father)!

Now, most of this has to do with the writers of the show, as I’ve always said. Laurel was written by men, for men - which, IMO, is the main problem her character failed. She had a lot of potential, though. “I mourn what she could’ve been” has always been my stance on the Laurel Lance character.

Anyway, those are my long, unnecessary thoughts on the subject. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, I tend to give really fucking long answers to any question I’m asked. Lol.

#TommyDeservedBetter

#anti-Laurel Lance #anti-Katie Cassidy #Just To Be Safe #Anonymous #Mini-Meta #Tommy Deserved Better

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