#ep 2.08

[thirteenthdyke]

her word will be the last word for this place.

[canonicallysoulmates]

Claudia's dress 😭

[nextstopparis]

2.05&2.06 hve some of the best characterization for arthur bye

[fluffypotatey]

God, watched "Sins of the Father" last night and I. Just. Love. How the writers were like, "Ah, yes, let's finish out this episode with the most violent upheaval of Arthur's relationship with Uther. There is no need to mention this again."

Like, yeah, I get it, Merlin lied and stopped Arthur from killing King Cunt, but STILL. It happened. Arthur and Uther have had disagreements before, but those were small potatoes. Arthur challenged his father, the King, to a fight to the death. He was actively trying to kill his father. And that....had no effect on him? Or Uther?

Arthur doesn't always agree with Uther, and he does disobey him when he has to, but I don't think he ever would imagine himself capable of hurting his father, let alone killing him.

And Uther, being the manipulative, abusive piece of shit he is, was probably 100% certain Arthur would never turn on him, the same way any abusive parent is confident in their power over their victim.

But it happened.

And that's just........not important?

bestie.....are you sure you want to open that can of worms with me

------

NO BECAUSE LISTEN I HAVE TOO MANY THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS ABOUT THIS

imma holler @nextstopparis because they have bombass posts and meta about exactly this

anyway

yes bestie so true, we have seen in s1 and s2 that arthur is capable of having a little rebellious streak but not enough to truly slight his father because (despite his shitty and abusive uther is) arthur still loves him. arthur has craved uther's approval since day one. all he gets from uther is stunted shoulder pats and "you're my son" kind of affection. which, you know, explains SO MUCH about why arthur is emotionally constipated, compensates his emotions into hyper-masculinity, and a grade A jock.

we know arthur seeks uther's approval and just wants uther to be proud of him. motherfucker (uther) literally in episode 2 of s1 "stops by Arthur on his way to the stands and speaks to him in a low voice" about he "trust [Arthur] will make [him] proud" like bitch???? way to stress out your child.

tips on how to emotionally abuse/keep your child wanting you love

always makes sure you pressure them into making you proud

place conditions on your love (trust = love = pride for son = no longer disappointed = no longer sees arthur as the cause of ygraine's death oop did i type that)

move them away and speak in a low threatening voice because self image matters and your child would never risk that

undermine your child's worth to exterior factors, aka things your child never had a say in (being a captain/high ranking knight at 15, being the son of your dead wife, telling them to grow up when they literally are acting their age)

enforcing patriarcal ideals such as only encouraging stoicism for arthur because feelings are for weaklings and dismissing morgana's opinions for 'outbursts'

howdy folks! welcome to the uther sucks club and why the hell did bbc just ignore arthur's very understandable anger towards uther in s2 ep8

we will not touch arthur's self loathing blame for his mother's death because i will derail from this post

what happened in s2 ep8???? i'm so glad you asked

it is revealed that uther pendragon's reason for committing genocide for over 20 years boils down to a highly dangerous spell that he forced the high priestess nimueh to cast on his wife (who wasn't aware of the spell in the first place) so she could become pregnant and grant him an heir.

uther, the caricature of the british empire himself, caused the death of his queen then turned around and blamed a whole community of innocent people because "magic is evil and shouldn't be trusted" and "when you know one sorcerer, you know them all"

arthur, daddy issues galore, is understandably pissed and enraged. why, you ask? because for years he believed it was his birth that led to his mother's death

ARTHUR I'm so sorry. YGRAINE You have nothing to be sorry for. ARTHUR It was my birth that caused you to die.

ok so we are actually gonna discuss this

FOR 20 YEARS THIS MAN BELIEVED HIS FATHER'S GRIEF WAS HIS FAULT

AND YOU KNOW WHAT

UTHER NEVER CORRECTED HIM! UTHER NEVER SAID ANYTHING TO CONTRADICT ARTHUR'S INTERNAL STRUGGLE!

WHY YOU ASK????

BECAUSE THEN ARTHUR WOULD STAY LOYAL TO HIM, BECAUSE THEN ARTHUR WOULD DO EVERYTHING IN HIS POWER TO PROVE THAT HE COULD 'right this old wrong' EVEN THO IT WAS NEVER HIS FAULT!

ahem

and then arthur learns the truth. arthur learns that ygraine's death was never his fault. ygraine's death was all because uther pendragon "was so desperate for an heir". that was all uther cared about.

ARTHUR This is what fuels your hatred for those who practice magic. Rather than blame yourself for what you did, you blame them.

ARTHUR How many hundreds have you condemned to death to ease your guilt?

ARTHUR You speak of honour and nobility! You're nothing but a hypocrite and a liar!

do you think....after arthur learned the truth, he remembered all of morgana's old arguments that went ignored by uther? he could hear her voice, filled with self-righteousness and selfless anger about how uther always placed the blame on others, projected fear and hatred to those who were innocent. do you wonder if arthur thought of morgana as he spewed those words to uther?

and then he is told that morgause lied to him. that the ygraine he saw was actually an illusion meant to divide camelot. arthur is told that the ygraine he saw who told him that holding him was "the most precious" moments of her life was nothing more than a lie.

so, what does mean for arthur? does that mean that it truly was his fault that ygraine died? does he go back to blaming himself?

or

is there still that doubt of his father's ruling that lays restless inside of him? does he watch his father more closely and how he reacts to magic crimes compared to non-magical? does he begin to confide in morgana more because she, too, understand this kind of anger he feels nestled inside of him?

but we don't get that

what we get after this is a week or maybe more of a time skip where gwen is kidnapped and the show tries to further the arwencelot love triangle (and i mean, i'm not against the love triangle, it's just...timing my dude)

it just goes ignored by the show like it wasn't a big deal that arthur was ready to commit regicide (unlike morgana), like it wasn't a big deal that merlin lied to arthur like that and didn't feel conflicted, like it wasn't a big deal that uther's Purge began because of misplaced anger.

no, instead, arthur is back as his snarky and uptight self who never again thinks back to what happened when some big plot is heading his way. and so the show never dives back into that. mentions of arthur's mother don't come back until s4 but that's with agravaine and i do not have the time for that man.

this episode really seemed like it was supposed to lead to a shift in arthur's character, and yet it didn't. it was just...never touched on again and i will never forgive them for that

[bedlamsbard]

when the next season of What If comes out, kindly remind me that it makes me crazed and I either need to be selective about what episodes I actually watch (there were three really excellent ones this season) or not watch it at all, because I'm making a deliberate attempt to not do this to myself in Marvel after getting out of Star Wars and I've managed it with everything else in the MCU that does or could potentially make me crazed, minus one. (and I had to watch FATWS for serum reasons.)

I also think it might be stepping on some of my lingering SW animation vs live action issues, which is not really fun for me to emotionally deal with. (I don't want to parse these at all, they're not logical and I'm honestly kind of hoping they just go away.)

[yennefer-x-tissaia]

Do you think Tissaia could feel how Yennefer cut her wrists in 2x08 again? Maybe by a spell Tissaia used back then to make sure Yennefer wouldn't try again/ made sure she would feel it if she did?

And now I'm thinking of Tissaia grabbing her wrist and hissing in pain like Yen did in 3.08. But then smiling as she feels Yen's magic return.

[forsakenmissives]

everyone ignore how all the episodes of ted lasso bleed together for me. that’s not important

[wutheringheightsfilm]

interview with the vampire 2.08 || the untamed (陈情令) ep. 1

[userarmand]

folks so committed to crowning armand as Worst Evil Guy™️ they straight up shredded everything lestat did prior to 2.08 from their minds like spongebob in that one ep

[astraisms]

So, we're just not going to talk about how Batel is in the faulty biobed in Sickbay from ep 2.08 in the season finale? M'Benga attempted fixing it in 2.08, but it's still compromised.

That stasis field isn't going to hold.

[sconesfortea]

Suspected that Dr O’Sullivan was Roy’s sister just from how those scenes in ep 2.08 followed on from each other, but cool to have that confirmed by today’s ep (unless this was already common knowledge and I’m just slow to it)

[preseriesdean]

Talk to me about s2 supremacy. Spare no details.

thank you for asking and allowing me to gush 💕

maybe most importantly: it still has that early seasons 2000s vibe with flip phones and tape decks and newspaper articles and wide angle shots and americana and grainy film and desaturated colors and grittiness and loose layered working class clothing and shitty motels and grungy bars and this rough edge to everything

another main point is that it finds the perfect balance between monster of the week episodes and a season-encompassing story/myth arc by generally combining the two when necessary, unlike some of the later seasons

an overarching theme is the morality of hunting and whether or not truly every “monster” is really evil or deserves to die: “what if we killed things that didn't deserve killing?” (bloodlust, the usual suspects, croatoan, hunted, born under a bad sign, roadkill, heart) which plays into my next point

the pacing of the season works really well to set up everything about the season finale: sam's storyline with simon said, croatoan, hunted, born under a bad sign; and dean selling his soul, first through john’s deal with azazel, then with children shouldn't play with dead things (“what's dead should stay dead” / “when someone's gone they should stay gone. you don't mess with that kind of stuff”) and crossroad blues (“i think you did it for yourself. so you wouldn’t have to live without her”) and somewhat in croatoan where he's ready to die with sam

literally every single episode is a certified banger in my opinion. i can only think of 2 episodes that didn’t hit the mark too well for me personally but every other one i could rewatch endlessly, and those two still objectively have merit within the framework of the show/season

i won’t talk about each and every ep, but specifically the entirety of playthings, one of the most, if not THE quintessential, gothic episodes of the show. immaculate vibes.

the usual suspects, which shows how well sam and dean work together without even being in the same room and just how generally Weird they can be to outsiders, as well as continuing the theme of “demons i get / people are crazy” which was first set up in s1

as well as the entirety of what is and what should never be. no further explanation necessary i think.

also sam and dean look really nice

cinematography is on. point. the entire time. these shots alone from 2.09 and 2.04. museum worthy.

sam and dean’s relationship is just. sublime. “we were just starting to be brothers again” (2.01) – “he's the only one who gets to call me [sammy]” (2.03) – “you make a move on him, you'll be dead before you hit the ground” (2.09) – “if i ever turn into something that i'm not you have to kill me” (2.11) – “i can't, i'd rather die” (2.14) – “i thought it was supposed to, to be this perfect fantasy” / “it wasn't” / “we never went hunting and you and me just never, uh... you know” (2.20) – “i had to look out for you. that's my job” / “and what do you think my job is?” (2.22)

without taking the focus off the brothers as its core or feeling suffocating, s2 introduces more recurring supporting characters (bobby... kind of, as a rollover from the s1 finale; jo, ellen, ash, gabriel, victor henriksen, gordon walker) and expands on the monster lore, lending some depth to the spn universe before it begins to really ramp up with heaven and hell etc. from s3 onwards

the music was so good, too, although that’s true for other seasons as well. from ‘bad moon rising’ playing on the radio after the car crash in 2.01 and ending with ‘don’t look back’ in 2.22 and everything inbetween; dean singing along to ‘can’t fight this feeling’ in 2.05, ‘hellhound on my trail’ in 2.08, ‘renegade’ in 2.12, ‘back on the road again’ in 2.14, ‘house of the rising sun’ in 2.16, ‘silent lucidity’ in 2.17, ‘rooster’ in 2.19, ‘americana’ playing during sam’s death etc.

they just... did not hold back in all hell breaks loose part 1. earth shattering.

season 2 is funny (hollywood babylon, “maybe the spirits are trying to shut down the movie cause they think it sucks”) and heartbreaking (all hell breaks loose) and silly (tall tales) and deep (what is and what should never be) and philosophical (houses of the holy) and tragic (heart) and creepy (croatoan and pretty much all the rest) and intelligent (the usual suspects) and beautiful to me 💛

[spuddy-potat]

Watanuki Kimihiro Whump List (xxxHOLiC)

its finally here!!! i know i said i would make this months ago but i finally got around to finishing it!! its my first whump list so i may have missed a few things (let me know if i should add anything!!) but i hope you find this helpful <3

note: Watanuki is affected by the presence of certain types of negative energy which make him feel ill (often shown by coughing, covering his mouth/nose, or gagging)–he reacts to it numerous times throughout the series so it will be referred to as "ghost energy" in this list.

includes some Doumeki whump as an added bonus!!

SEASON 1 1.01: chased, knocked down by spirits (comedic), trips 1.02: cooking mishap (comedic) x2, ghost energy 1.03: ghost energy, accosted by spirits, briefly unconscious(?) after nearly falling off the roof Doumeki bonus: dislocated shoulder 1.04: reference to parents' death 1.05: chased by spirits 1.06: freaked out by Yuuko's shortcut, ghost energy (coughing 1.07: bonked by umbrella (comedic) x2, dragged under hydrangea, ghost energy, unconscious Doumeki bonus: bonked by umbrella (comedic), tired from waiting/digging in the rain for hours, Yuuko mentions that his injury is aggravated by the rain 1.08: ghost energy x2 1.09: "strangled" by Kudagitsune (comedic), yanked around by Kudagitsune x2, Doumeki-induced collapse (comedic) 1.10: freaked out by ghost stories, slapped by Yuuko (comedic), freaked out by spirits, grabbed/restrained 1.11: falls from the sky, bonked by umbrella (comedic)         Doumeki bonus: soul removed, passes out (10:00), head bonked, unconscious for most of the episode 1.12: carries heavy luggage (comedic), hurts wrist trying to turn a handle (comedic), freaked out by spirit, grabbed 1.13: arm slashed 1.14: ghost energy (dizzy(?)) x2, Himawari-induced half-collapse (comedic) 1.15: none         Doumeki bonus: tea spilled on arm 1.16: bothered by Kudagitsune (heavy), nearly collapses(?) after chase 1.17: slapped with bouquet of flowers 1.18: slams face into wall youkai, falls from the sky 1.19: smacks face on tree (comedic) 1.21: trips, nightmare, body feels heavy, collapses, freaked out by spirit, childhood flashback, reference to parents' death 1.22: reference to parents' death x2, coughing x8, not eating as much (small detail), passes out x2 (16:15)(22:00), weak, childhood flashback, coughing up blood 1.23: weak, passes out x3 (3:30)(5:00)(15:25), coughing x4, nightmare, crying x3, nearly collapses, heavy breathing, worsening cough 1.24: childhood flashback [freaked out by spirit, reference to parents' death, loss of friend]

SEASON 2 (POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING) 2.01: strange dream, blindness in right eye, split vision         Doumeki bonus: eye pain, collapse (7:00), eye sealed shut 2.02: split vision x2, smacked by Karasutengu 2.03: ghost energy x2 (weak, nearly collapses), collapses (4:52), cuts hand with glass, split vision, restrained x2, choked, eye swallowed, passes out x2 (15:30)(20:25) 2.04: grabbed/restrained, unconscious, passes out (8.55) 2.06: hopelessly bad at mahjong (collapses numerous times in defeat–comedic) 2.07: pinky hurts, trips 2.08: pinky hurts/spills tea on hand 2.09: hot tea thrown at face 2.10: cold water thrown at face 2.11: pinky hurts x3 (worsening pain), freaked out, falls out window (15:17), almost dies, sees parents in a dream/hallucination(?)–appears as a child, crying 2.12: unconscious for 6 days         Doumeki bonus: blood loss

SHUNMUKI (OVA) ep 1: Doumeki-induced freak-out (comedic), flashback [lonely], embarrassed x3 ep 2: passes out (offscreen), wakes up on the floor

ROU (OVA) ep 1: crying ep 2: wakes up on the floor

MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (MOVIE) bothered by spirits, embarrassed (kinda cute), ghost energy (gags, has to leave the room), strange dream, falls from a balcony, smacked by a piece of wood, nearly falls off a ledge

2022 LIVE ACTION MOVIE* (POTENTIAL SPOILER WARNING) chased by spirits, stands on the roof (WHY?????), bumps into Doumeki and falls like a moe girl, stabbed in the shoulder/neck, collapses (32:30), tries to stand up and collapses like a moe girl (34:24), carried bridal-style by Doumeki, falls down a stairwell (but its ok he got better), eye stolen, dragged into pond, nightmare [witnesses mother's death], wakes up on the ground, time loop, pushed down, arm twisted, choked, dragged, restrained x2, sexually harrassed by Jourogumo (too many times, i refused to keep count), crying

*im gonna be honest watching this movie was kind of a nightmare, its super out of character and condenses/rewrites the story in weird ways (dont even get me started on Jourogumo). i dont recommend this movie if you care about the integrity of these characters and story tbh. however, i thought i should include it for the sake of completion 😔. cool visuals tho.

[thegirl20]

Gifs I would like from The Witcher season 3

Listen, I would make them myself if I could, but I cannot so for anybody out there who’s willing:

Parallel of Tissaia calling Yennefer ‘Piglet’ and Yennefer calling Ciri ‘My Ugly One’

Parallel of Tissaia saying ‘Why? Why do you want a baby?’ in 1.05 and then ‘You finally did it. Became a mother’ in 3.03.

Parallel of Tissaia blasting Stregobor away from Yen in 2.03 and Yen blasting the big monster thingie away from Ciri in 3.01 (or blasting Francesca away from Ciri in 3.01)

Parallel of Tissaia saying ‘Please’ in 1.07 and Yen saying ‘Please’ in 3.03

Parallel of Yennefering saying ‘As if I’d trust anyone else with [Ciri]’ in 2.08 and then saying ‘If I could just talk to Tissaia’ in 3.01

The convo Vilgefortz and Tissaia have in 3.02 where all he talks about is how much Yen and Tissaia love each other

The convo Yen and Vilgefortz have in 3.04 where he tells her Tissaia will always protect her

Sabrina (all of her scenes, especially the ones where she’s annoying Yen)

Yennefer’s vehement refusal to leave Tissaia in ep 3.05

All of the times Yen looks at Tissaia’s lips (may need more than one gifset)

Tissaia greeting Yennefer at the Thanedd ball with the air kissing

Yennefer interacting with Tissaia and Vilgefortz at the ball like they’re her parents and she’s slightly embarassed by them

(Also I should say that if I’ve made any posts using shitty screencaps, please feel free to make gif versions of them!!)

[polis-fandom]

Patrick Gibson as Nikolai Lantsov behind the scenes of filming ep 2.08 of "Shadow and Bone" Season 2 on Netflix.

Pictures from @/netflix on twitter.

Video from @/daeganfryklind on Instagram:

"Getting @/paddygibson into place in the fight vs the chapel nichevo’ya. That grin at the end of the ride 😇"

*Grin, lol. Meanwhile talking about this scene in video on Netflix Tuduum:

Patrick Gibson: "I do get scared of heights. But I kind of try and pretend that I'm not. Especially when they pull you up on a harness or rig. Trying to play it incredibly cool, but I was kind of breaking it, yeah. I'm not great with heights."

Jack Wolfe: "You did look really cool in the air there. It does suit you"

Patrick Gibson: "Thank you, mate. I felt pretty cool."

[yennefer-x-tissaia]

I just KNOW that Tissaia felt Yennefer get her magie back the moment it happened. It's canon they told me. Nothing else is acceptable.

100% hard agree, anon.

It's always been my view that Tissaia can feel Yennefer's magic.

And yes, here's another shameless plug for a ficlet I wrote about this very moment.