#howmever I AM going to tell you about it

[monsterlets]

never take me to a natural history museum unless you want me to say shit like "that spinosaurus model was made before 2014 I can almost guarantee you"

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

From Dusk to Dawn, Light at the End of the Tunnel, Apollo and Aphrodite bonding, and (I can't remember if this was already answered) A Titan's Demise 👀

From Dusk to Dawn

This particular fic takes place during The Titan's Curse!!! Basically, Apollo sneaking around and helping the questers save Artemis behind Zeus's back.

Apollo shenanigans galore lmao

There's Always Light At the End of the Tunnel

okay, I can't/won't say mcuh about this because 👀 i have plans but...i will say it's Apollo dropping by the Hunt post-ToA

....you know what i think i'll also do something with him dropping by the Hunt pre-PJO for poetry's sake :)

Apollo n Aphrodite bond over "not changing much" in the Greek-Roman thing

okay okay, here's the thing.

Aphrodite herself says that she didn't really change all that much when Rome surprise adopted Greece. She casually flicks between Aphrodite and Venus without much trouble because "love is universal" (like chocolate).

And in this fandom, we all will go down with the "Apollo isn't affected by the schism" theory so...bonding! :D

howmever. there is that Reyna business between Venus and Apollo. I don't know what the common consensus is on how Venus basically humiliated Apollo in front of the entire council is, but here's my two cents: She shouldn't have done that. No matter what it was about Reyna's love life that made her sad (probably that she wouldn't find romantic love but who needs that when u have platonic love eh?), she had no right to tear into Apollo like that. Especially in front of the entire Council. Who proceeded to laugh at him.

😳

Apollo may have a reputation with his relationships, but he didn't even say - or think - he was interested in Reyna. He just asked who she was and remarked she was pretty. It was in the same fashion as Hazel describing Percy as a god - sure, in Tyrant's Tomb Apollo clearly offers to be Reyna's boyfriend if she was interested but took it rather well when she laughed it off.

So yeah. whew. there's my two cents on that. don't shoot if i said something controversial. constructive criticism only please.

Anyway, going back to Aphrodite V Venus. I think the one major difference between them is that Venus may be a little more hardcore - remember, the Greek gods were taken and made more "disciplined" and "warlike". So I think Venus, while she isn't all that different from her Greek counterpart, has that little extra spice to her, a little more vindictiveness (which also adds into the topic above)

their relationship is fascinating to me and i wanna put them under a microscope. I imagine they were good friends because people often stereotype them as "dumb" and "mediocre" (probably because of the whole hot person=stupid person stereotype. and the domains they have [i.e. love, beauty, music, poetry, ooo so scary said some very dumb people who likely met their end either by a tiger they somehow found attractive or a deadly, plague-infested arrow]) and that's something they would vent about to each other. Also, shopping trips. Because I say so. Aphrodite says Apollo's the only other Olympian with any sense of style (Dionysus, she also says, also has style, but that leopard print...it's just too much sometimes. RIP)

oh yeah. and this fic immediately proceeds one other fic - but I'm not telling <3

let's just say that Venus ma~y have had an impact on the next person Apollo dated 👀

A Titan's Demise

i am caps, you are italics.

WHO WANT'S MORE APOLLO & HELIOS? ME!

WHO WANT'S ANCIENT ROME? ME!

WHO WANTS ANGST? ME-wait.

hahaha...this is all about how Apollo & Helios's relationship went sour during the Roman Empire, Helios just...disappearing one day, and Apollo inherited the domain and powers of the Sun.

Enjoy their fluff while you can.

Because I plan to go pain pain pain with this one :)

[hausofmamadas]

RAÍCES DE DINARRÓN | Eso es mi pinshe espososa ... get your own, cabrón

✷✷✷ (For any and all Dinarrón content, refer to disclaimer in these posts) ✷✷✷

᪥

From Narcos: Mexico, Season 3, episode 10 - Life in Wartime

Salud a mi gente, been a hot minute since I posted and proper screamed in all caps about Dinarrón. And let me tell you…… va a ser como un doozy. Y por qué? Porque esta escena fue la que comenzó todas las mensas shingaderas Dinarrón. Estamos?

Come sit on grand pappy’s lap and I’ll tell you a story. Months ago when I was recording some Dina scenes from Nmx for an IsaDina fanvid which is still a thing except I changed it so not really but like it sorta is... it’s fine I started noticing this thing where like, esp después de que se convierta la jefa de jefas but not just S3 -> see this post Barrón just seemed to ALWAYS be in the background of her shots? Which like, okay it’s not that weird. Mans haunts the edges of the whole show. He was following Mín around at the start of S3 when Mín was AFO big man on campus ... HOWMEVER

This fucking scene hit me right in the chesticle muscle they call that a heart? idk bc this happens after Min comes out of hiding and is Big Boss again. And like it’s awkwaaarrrd. Bc everyone’s a lil like, by everyone, I mean Pancho, Món, and obvious lover Barróncito “Cool Mín, you’re back! Glad you didn’t die, really swell. But Dina’s been holding down the fort like a regular Julius Caesar and her suits are sharper than yours imjustsosorry but I feel like??? she’s more in charge than you, hombre??? …also we're scared of her. Like when you get mad, you look much stress and stomp out of bday parties but when she gets mad, she strings ppl from freeway overpasses like wet laundry, so ….”

Bc lest we forget, this is the same ep Món finds Mayo and takes that tidbit to Dina, not Mín bc no one knows who’s in charge except they totally do and it’s totally Dina but they don’t want to make Mín cry in his soup when he just got back. And based on this scene, it seems Barrón is likewise unsure who’s in charge or he just not done following Dina around like a lost puppy bc he has functioning eyes and a functioning brain with which to process Dina’s extraordinary foxiness and can’t get enough ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ who can say

᪥

Y estas pendejadas got me in such a tizzy bc:

a) The way it’s shot. Bc callate alaverga y moment of silence for how fucking cool this looks. Dinarrón aside, enserio I love this shot so much. The close-up on Dina's face, all emo in her feels she turns around, it’s blurry, only for Barrón to slowly come into focus. It's one of those sequences that makes me regret going to school for Physics. Sub pinshe Chapo and Cochi in here, and I'm still obsessed. But like also.... okay.... am I straight bonkers, or does it seem like a weirdly intimate way to frame a shot for two characters who’ve only directly spoken a total of THREE MF TIMES IN THE WHOLE SHOW?? AM I??? CRAZY??? these are rhetorical kthnx had it been Panchito or Món, that would make sense to me. It’s her brothers, we've witnessed heartfelt interactions btwn them, she's close with them. Like alone it isn't weird but like… why??? Barrón?? Legit talked 3 times, I've counted.

b) he refers to her by The Formal “Usthted”

c) again, I ask ignoring the like obv answer of look at his face why is he the one tasked with getting Dina and not one of her brothers?? Like is he still her bodyguard?? Even though Mín is back and presumably he should be up Mín’s ass again?? Or maybe Dina got to keep her clear, obvious lover and blatant malewife security since she was boss for so long???

REGARDLESS, none of it especially makes sense and none of it’s especially explained. And thusly, the only rational thing we can conclude in light of this irrefutable evidence is THEY BEEN FUCKIN.

᪥

And suuurree, you're prob thinking.... Kay. In no way is that the only explanation. And y'know, I couldn't argue with you joke's on you, I can always argue no matter how absurd the angle except the above. Let's unpack this. Barrón is escorting his Boss in life and love to this big ass fam meeting that Ceasar understudy #1 Mín has called to discuss future AFO moves. Dina's standing at one end of the table, Min seated at the other end so that sksksks depending how you look at it, they're both at the head of the table.

More importantly tho, the look SKSKS on Dina's face SKSKSK when Mín asks Barrón about the Amado search. Before that, she's enjoying her smoke, raisin’ her eyebrows at someone all cute-like. Then Mín pipes up, “still nothing on Amado?" Barron says no and Mín tells him to *snap snap* stay on it, sends him away. Her fuckin face when she looks at Mín..... at Barrón.... then back at Mín, is giving like:

".... this biiiiiiiiiiiiiish ....? Just exactly???? tf you think you are??? Ordering mi mano derecha, mi rayo de Luna, mi espososa, MY MALEWIFE, around?? Is he yours???? Oh, no??? Cause he's mine??? Maybe I wanted him to go look for Amado. Or maybe I wanted him to stand next to me so we could look like the sexiest, most devastating, color-coordinated One True Power Couple that ever was. MAYBE THAT'S WHAT TF I WANTED HIM TO DO, MÍN."

… Okay, so maaay have taken some liberties, maybe editorialized that last part unpoquito... but, for sure, just the last bit.

᪥

taglist(have some gifs): @ashlingnarcos @cherixrosa @cherixsays @narcolini @cositapreciosa @purplesong1028 @criatividad-e @tinylittleobsessions @cigarettesaftersunset @carlislecullenisadilf @artemiseamoon @narcos-narcosmx @thesolotomyhan @southotheborder @mandaloria314 @bellinitini @ashlingiswriting @narcosmx @kesskirata @curaheed @alreadywritten

[livenudebigfoot]

hospital au + I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On: finch/fusco

OH BOY ok

I weirdly have trouble imagining either one of them as a doctor doctor. Finch just sort of operates at a remove from everything - he’s like an organizer who only gets his hands dirty when he has to - while Fusco is like...med school?? him?? He does have big EMT energy howmever.

And then I found the ideal landing space, which is physical therapy.

So Harold Finch...we’ll say like a pre-canon, post-explosion Finch. He’s full of grief, he’s got big plans, he’s scoping out a weirdo for hire to join him in his quest, but before he can defeat premeditated crime in NYC, he must defeat Rehab.

While attending physical therapy, he meets Lionel Fusco, Earth’s most bastardly physical therapist. He is gruff. He is uncouth. He keeps bestowing friendly-yet-oddly-cutting nicknames on Finch. He just generally throws Finch for a loop, socially speaking. This is not the kind of person Finch would choose to talk to, but he’s getting all up in Finch’s business while Finch is at his most vulnerable and Finch Does Not Enjoy It.

Meanwhile Fusco’s like “man this guy is a piece of work” because a) Finch is kind of a snot and b) he’s like the most locked down human being Fusco’s ever met. Very suppressed, very tightly controlled, extremely reticent to describe his own pain, and every time Finch describes how he got injured or really anything about himself, Fusco’s internal lie detector starts going crazy.

I do want to maintain Fusco’s Shifty Past but I’m not sure if I want to come up with something new or if I want to roll with my immediate instinct, which is: Fusco’s backstory is the same except after his inciting bad cop incident, he was like, “Actually, fuck this,” quit the force, and he’s a physical therapist now shhhh don’t ask questions. If Carter can be a lawyer army interrogator cop in canon, Fusco can be a PT. 

Anyway, the process of PT is often really slow and frustrating and painful and Finch is just biting his tongue, absolutely miserable, but every time he even thinks of giving up, Fusco will just make this extremely friendly dig at him and it makes Finch stick it out a little longer. Fusco gives him massages and they’re incredibly painful most of the time but also Fusco’s hands are big and warm and calloused and he tells bizarre or hilarious stories while he’s rubbing Finch’s hip to take his mind off the pain. Finch has a partly water-based exercise routine to take pressure off his joints and it makes him feel weightless and free, and also sometimes Lionel gets in the pool with him to correct his form and uhhhhhhhhh: wet.

and eventually Finch is like “oh good god i have a crush on my physical therapist. how inappropriate of me.”

and meanwhile Fusco is increasingly compelled by Finch, because he’s thawing a little and when Fusco tells a joke, he does a tiiiiny secret smile, but also he’s clearly carrying this massive emotional weight and he’s driven by a form of determination that Fusco can’t begin to understand and he doesn’t trust anybody but he’s learning to trust Fusco, bit by bit, and Fusco really wants to be worthy of that trust.

and Fusco’s like “ah fuck, i’m getting attached”

and they’re both just trying to be regular about it, for each other’s sake, and carry on like everything’s normal but Finch has to consciously stop himself from admitting to his own baseball preferences when Fusco slams his home team and Fusco is distracted by physical contact in a way he isn’t usually and Finch is like incredibly touch-starved and very pro-massage all of a sudden.

Fusco starts calling Finch at night to remind him to do his exercises before bed and Finch is like “i am a grown man you are not the boss of me” but he never misses it, and Fusco never misses a call, even though Finch goes to bed crazy late. 

And then...Fusco’s number comes up. Because Stills and Other HR Dudes are displeased with him. Maybe he Knows Too Much about a thing and they’re willing to off him to stop him from telling what he knows, but Fusco still thinks there’s some kind of loyalty there and is in denial about the danger he’s potentially in. Finch has to save him! But he doesn’t want to tell Fusco about the Machine and also he’s VERY physically vulnerable and has not yet recruited a Weird Assassin to do his bidding. Finch initially tries to manipulate Fusco into being safe before finally learning that Fusco trusts him and it’s easier to just be honest. Lionel learns that Finch is a) weirder than he thought and b) fonder of him than he imagined. They defeat the corrupt cops. They do a kiss. Finch has to get a new physical therapist because it’s weird now, but Fusco still gives him massages on like a casual relationship basis.

anyway i don’t have a crush on my physical therapist, you have a crush on my physical therapist

[emilywatchescursedshow]

Spn Season 1 Review

Hoboy

First, the live blogs of the last 4 episodes were done in a haze of jetlag depression so were less specific to what was actually happening in the episodes than normal and contained no extraneous information. HOWMEVER. I will get into those episodes more in this recap because:

1. I do not feel like the season really Led Up to this finale. Part of that could be because I took a bit of a break halfway through, but I think also the groundwork for the Sam/John parallel they tell us about was not really set up in previous episodes. 2. I think that the characterization of the brothers and their relationship to John is really Interesting in these episodes and the drama of that is a big part of the show as a whole, so the last several episodes are pretty relevant here.

THEMING The theme of season 1 is more or less: family. How do you handle family trauma and loss? How do you as a parent protect your children vs let them have independent lives (or just suck major ass)? To what extent is your family holding you back? Etc. The two sort of relationship dynamics this plays in is the Sam/Dean dynamic and the John/sons dynamic.

DEAN Dean’s characterization through this theme remains pretty consistent: he wants to be with his family. He showed up to get Sam at the beginning of the season, and he wants to keep them all alive at the end of the season instead of sacrificing John to kill the demon. The irony is that the season ends with them all “dying” (I know they’re not dead, but right now that’s what the show wants us to believe) and Dean’s insistence on family unity is what ends up getting them all killed.

Dean’s story line throughout has been one of responsibility assumed too early. After their mom died, his dad basically made him co-parent. Dean had to give up his ambitions to bend to his dad’s wishes while also trying to protect Sam from John and various monsters. It makes sense for him, given that backstory, that keeping the family together is his highest priority: he has been forced to give up all sense of self to keep his family safe, so if they die then he literally has nothing. I think it’s interesting that Dean is the only one of him or Sam who actually knew their mother, and yet Sam is the one who gets a mother-relevant character arc.

That might be because of the next aspect of Dean’s character we see: he likes to have sex with women. I tend to be pretty sensitive to misogyny/mistreatment of women on screen, so either I’ve lost my mind or I’m already watching this show through a very queer lens because Dean’s treatment of women throughout the season Did Not Bother Me. The only thing that really rang sour was at the beginning of Provenance when Dean is lying to women about his job to get into bed with them, but even then, like, eh? The whole scene (and all the other such scenes) are depicted with a lightheartedness that is hard to read malice into, and Jackles plays that part with such a wide-eyed “Wow! I get to have sex now!” that it’s hard not to feel anything but happy for the guy. I do suspect that Dean is supposed to be characterized as “treating women like whores/expendable” and so does not have an attachment to his mother in this season because he’s not allowed to have a complex relationship with a woman.

SAM Uh boy. So Sam’s arc begins with his girlfriend getting immolated - we learn later that Sam wanted to propose to her and so she was getting in the way of the demon’s plans for “kids like him.” Whatever that means - the show does not communicate its stakes to us AT ALL, more on that later. Sam gets some episodes of characterization throughout. The only two I can remember are the one with the abused psychic and the one where a woman decides she’s in love with him within seconds of meeting him. In neither episode to I really feel like I understand Sam as a character. We are told at various points that he really loved Jessica and her death has affected him greatly. At the beginning of the season, he dreams about it often, but these dreams end up being psychic in nature (I think?) and fall off by mid season. He doesn’t have a keepsake of hers to gaze at longingly or any other way of showing he’s having trouble letting go. Dean basically lets him off the leash to go kiss Sarah in Provenance, which he seems pretty happy to do and has no real guilt over after. Sam’s characterization is carried out very directly - we are told what he is feeling or had felt, instead of some combination of saying it via dialogue and reading it from his actions. I’ve mentioned that I don’t think Jarp is especially strong as an actor, but I have to chalk this up to both weaknesses in writing and acting because scenes that communicate Sam’s internal world are largely nonexistent IMO.

We are told that the connection between their mother’s death and Jess’s death has had a great impact on Sam. He believes that he is cursed so that the “people he loves” (read, women) will die. While in a broad sense this might be true as the demon does admit to have targeted Sam, the supposed “curse” is not really dealt with by Sam except as a barrier in his journey to move on from lost love. Jess’s death served as Sam’s call to adventure at the beginning of the season and should give some emotional connection to Sam’s continued commitment to hunting, but until the final episodes Sam’s involvement in the monster world is continually explained as “wants to find dad” and not “wants to break curse.” In these episodes, Sam’s Jess backstory comes back and we are told that his desire to kill the demon makes him “like John.” Which. Is. Stupid. Let me explain.

In terms of the theming, Sam’s wanting to kill the demon even though it might cost the lives of any number of the Winchesters makes sense because of his established relationship with his family. He wanted to have a normal life which alienated him from Dean and John. Sam has very negative memories of John, and has little brother blindness to the stuff Dean did for him growing up and is largely unhappy with Dean as well. Thus it is not surprising that to Sam, a Winchester dying is not as large a price to pay if it means that Sam gets to have a normal life.

HOWEVER. I am giving the show a LOT of credit here because they DO NOT make that connection, instead going for the stupid “Sam is like John” parallel which is treated almost like a surprise reveal. John’s reasons for killing the demon are NOT Sam’s reasons for killing the demon. John is motivated by revenge to an insane degree: it has consumed his life and the lives of both of his sons. Sam is not revenge motivated. He moves on from Jess’s death in literally THE EPISODE before the finale run starts. Sam is motivated by what he has always been motivated by: his desire for a normal life, including a wife who wont burst into flames. So on a thematic level, short-handing these character conflicts as “Sam is like John” (which is explicitly stated multiple times throughout these episodes) does not work because these characters are approaching family from a very different place even if they end up with the same goal.

I do want to mention that I think Sam’s backstory of wanting a normal life could have been set up better; the show does a good job with Dean’s “too much responsibility too young” child stand-in, but Sam does not get a “I just wanted to go to prom” child stand-in. Which I miss because that would be HILARIOUS. I think the issue the show has here with Sam is, in short, that Sam wanting to be normal is Very Boring, whereas the world of monsters and how Tortured and Jaded everyone is is much Sexier.

JOHN The text of the show is pretty unabashed about telling us things that John did that a reasonable audience member could interpret as being Very Bad. In the brief moments he has on the show, the dynamic between him and his sons is mixed. There are plenty of heartfelt family moments, and there are plenty of fights. I think the show is definitely weakest when it is following John by himself. I do not care about John except as he relates to Sam and Dean, and really if he is in any sort of danger I just want him to die based on how awful he is as a person, so the suspense does not swing the way the writers maybe wanted it to. 

I think the twist at the end, where Dean realizes the demon has possessed their dad because he’s acting nicer, just b a r e l y works based on what they’ve set up. Honestly, I think the real problem is that John Winchester’s actor does not, to me, read as having any onscreen charisma. In the altercations that he has with Sam, I don’t really feel a threat from him. There isn’t any explosive or destructive energy, just sort of “your mom is mad you ate the last of her ice cream” energy. I’ve literally BEEN a more intimidating fake drill sergeant than John Winchester and I’m 5 feet tall and 110 lbs. John has big sad wet dog energy. He can get mad, but not in a way that’s actually intimidating. Thus, him telling Dean that he’s proud is sort of like “yeah, I bet this milksop is proud or whatever” and not “wow I would have expected that character to be a lot more upset right now.” I get that family dynamics can be complicated and a parent can cause you Bone Pain with just a look that to anyone else would seem harmless, but this is a television show where things have to read on screen. One Look Bone Pain is a lot more nuanced to construct. I think John being Big Mean Drill Sergeant is what they’re trying for, but in my opinion he's mostly just annoying.

Anyway John sucks.

WHAT’S NOT THERE The above talks a lot about what *is* in the show vis. the family theme. But Emily, this is a monster show. What about the monsters? Well. What about them indeed.

This first season of Supernatural is very clearly referencing the tradition of The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A lot of former X-Files people are credited on the season and they mention BTVS by name in an episode that is clearly themed around season 6 Buffy villains. Howmever. Both TXF and BTVS have a very important thing that Supernatural does not. STAKES. And not just ones meant for vamps that then get ignored by SPNs stupid vamp lore voice over.

Both BTVS and TXF handle their monsters very differently. BTVS is a universe where the main character has been fully initiated into the world of monsters so that, throughout the course of the episode, it is reasonable for her to detail pretty specifically what the monster is and what it is capable of. On the other hand, the characters in TXF must always be kept on the edge of the monster world, getting faint glimpses here and there. Usually, Mulder has an expository scene giving information on “what is known” at the beginning of the episode and then further monstrosity is communicated to the audience via interstitial scenes that tell the audience what the monster is and where it’s going, introducing dramatic tension: AA NO SCULLY DON’T TOUCH THAT IT’S SUPER GROSS. Both avenues successfully communicate to the audience what the monsters are (approximately), what they can do, and what their motivations are. This means that in the climactic scene, the audience knows what the STAKES are. They know what might be lost of the main characters fail, they know what the characters need to overcome to succeed, and they know what the monster is trying to accomplish.

Now. Some of the MOTW episodes in Supernatural do communicate what the monster is and what it wants. Scarecrow and Bugs are two that come to mind that both do this. Tellingly, both of these episodes also seem very modeled on TXF (compare/contrast Bugs with the trash golem episode of TXF where Mulder hip thrusts after sticking a flamingo in the yard, essay for another time).

Home is the first Supernatural episode that I identified as being extremely plot-oriented after the pilot. It’s also the first episode after the pilot to give sole writing credit to Kripke. There are interstitial scenes wherein the audience sees spooky stuff happening. However, these scenes do not further the audience’s understanding of the monster - we already know the house is evil and trying to kill people, and that’s pretty much all those scenes show. Moreover, Sam and Dean do not learn more about the monster in the house during this episode; their arc is basically just “Wow, isn’t it strange that the house is spooky now? Our mom died here!” The resolution at the end is borderline incomprehensible and their mother just sort of. Appears. Out of nowhere and then vanishes again with very little emotional weight given to this occurrence later in the episode or in the next episode. My summary of Home was pretty much “I did not like this and don’t want to be mean.” I talked about how I like monsters in monster shows, whereas Supernatural is more of a soap opera.

And yeah, the finale of Supernatural (written by Kripke) basically follows that track as well. I don’t know what these demons are or what they want. I don’t know what they can do besides possess people. When Meg confronts people and talks all big it’s hard for me to take seriously because I don’t know what she wants or what she is capable of, except in that one scene where she wanted to fuck Sam which. gross!

This is what I mean by saying that Supernatural does not have stakes. When the choice between losing a family member verses not defeating the monster is posited, the only reason I as an audience member feel engaged is the family conflict that has been established. There is no tension about the monster because I just have to assume that it will do whatever the writers decide it should do. I’m not weighing the odds of the Winchesters winning, I’m just watching them point guns at each other and hoping for the best.

CONCLUSION Jensen Ackles does a good job of playing Dean and he should get an award especially for his performances in the last two episodes of the show. IMO, he basically carried the emotional weight of the conflict and really made us root for Sam to not shoot his dad which is HARD because of how badly John sucks. I’m going to keep watching this show because of Jensen Ackles playing Dean Winchester. Fight me about it.

I think season 1 of Supernatural felt like watching two different shows with the same main characters. On the one hand, you have the MOTW episodes which invariably begin with “Here’s why we’re not tracking down our dad, even though that’s our stated motivation” and then tell a nice monster mystery with some good character beats. On the other hand, you have the series arc episodes, which are soap operas with demonic elements. I’m fine with it - because of Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester. I’m interested to see what season 2 is like.