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#it ties in really well with themes of Billy being forced to grow up too fast
wolfsbanesparks · 1 year
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Do you ever think about the possibility of Billy (teen age) finding an abandoned baby and then in fear of the child going through the same traumas as him as a foster kid in the system, try and raise the baby as his own? Just Billy deciding on becoming a dad/older brother to a possibly magic baby, and the Justice League suddenly seeing captain marvel carrying a small baby in one of those baby carrying things. Your fic with harley quinn and billy sparked this brain rot idea
An entire nursery room is made in the Rock of Eternity, right next to the mysterious library.
This is a really interesting idea!
Because Billy is definitely the type of person who would take on the responsibility of caring for a baby/younger kid if he thought it would be better for them in the long run. Whether it's purely based on worry over what might happen to the kid in the system or if there are extenuating circumstances like the baby is very magical or has metahuman powers or whatever the case may be, there could be a cool story there!
Is he prepared to raise a kid on his own? Definitely not. But he will try his hardest even if it means making a lot of personal sacrifices to do so. There would probably be a decent bit of angst since Billy would be a single teen parent who lives on his own.
And the JL would see him carrying this baby around, playing with said baby in meetings, stressing about the baby's health, and they'd all pitch in their two cents on what babies need. Billy would be grateful for the help especially once he realized just how much extra responsibility he'd taken on. Some of them might even offer up their sidekicks as babysitters which would be so funny.
And him sprucing up the Rock of Eternity so it'd be a suitable nursey is just so precious. That kid would grow up to have NO sense of what's normal. But Billy would love that kid so much and be the world's most doting teenaged dad ever.
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Superhero Gothic
Thanks to everyone who responded to my previous post (special shoutout to @jeyfeather1234 💛 ) about superheroes and gothic media! I know it’s been, like, a month, but here we go.
Here’s a bit of a look into some common gothic themes, and how they apply to Doom Patrol, The Boys, Watchmen (2019), and The Umbrella Academy. This one’s a bit long, not gonna lie, but I hope you enjoy! 
Part I: Let’s Talk About Gothic Media
There is not actually an all-encompassing definition for gothic media, or even a universally agreed-upon one. You’re probably familiar with some well-known gothic works (think Dracula, Frankenstein, Edgar Allen Poe, Stephen King) but there is a lot of debate on what exactly makes them gothic. 
There are some common themes in gothic works, though: families/characters under the control of a tyrannical paterfamilias, the crumbling of the established order/estate, long-buried secrets that have consequences in the present, and supernatural events that are stand-ins for/reflective of the emotional state/past actions of the characters. 
(Note: these aren’t all the themes of gothic works or even most of them, but for purposes here, I’d like to limit this analysis to them. I’d love to talk about other themes/ideas, though, if anyone has them. 😊)
So… superheroes (quick overview in case you haven’t watched any of them… spoiler warnings for the rest of this discussion)
Doom Patrol:
Five misfit superhumans attempt to rescue their mentor figure when he is kidnapped by an old enemy.
They are very, very bad at it.
Also features a singing horse head, a sentient nonbinary teleporting street (who is by far the best character) and the narrator is the fourth-wall breaking series villain. 
Beautifully weird but will also emotionally devastate you. Criminally underrated, tbh.
Watchmen (2019):
Story takes place after the canon of the graphic novel which is too much to summarize.
Alternate history (that should really feel more fictitious than it does) where white supremacist organization the Seventh Cavalry, masked police officers, and former superheroes in hiding all collide in Tulsa Oklahoma
Swept the Emmys this year and ABSOLUTELY DESERVED TO
The Umbrella Academy:
Washed up former child superheroes are forced to reunite when their father dies under mysterious circumstances 
Time travel, dysfunctional siblings, and a killer soundtrack
Basically a family drama with the superhero story as secondary (complimentary)
Probably the most obviously gothic of all of these it is aesthetic AF 
The Boys: 
Superheroes exist but they are corporate sellouts under the control of evil company Not-Amazon (AKA Vought)
Regular human protagonists try to hold them accountable for their actions with varying (read: usually minimal) success
Yes, it’s the one from those weird ads earlier this year
Billy Joel!! 
Part II: Niles Caulder, Ozymandias, and Other Terrible Father Figures
The Tyrannical Paterfamilias: 
Does not always mean a father figure explicitly, often relating to the notion of a patriarchal tradition, or family inheritance that plays a role in controlling the main characters. 
Sometimes, it is a father figure. 
Sometimes, it is a representative of patriarchal tradition/male head of pseudo-family unit.
So, uh, role call: 
Reginald Hargreeves (even in death) holds power over his children, and has shaped all of them into the adults they have become, and that drives the majority of the conflict. Each of the major character individually grapples with the after-effects of his abuse. Luther feels the need to be the leader and protect everyone and alienates his allies as a consequence. Diego constantly asserts himself as a hero (often to dangerous extremes) because it is the only way he was ever valued. Allison has to teach herself boundaries and responsible use of her powers after he encouraged her to abuse them for years. Klaus turns to drugs to cope with his childhood trauma. Five disobeyed his father with disastrous consequences and is constantly fighting to not become him. Vanya spent her entire childhood in the background, and never learned to assert herself in a healthy way. Thanks, Reggie.
Homelander says that The Seven are like a family. While whether or not this is accurate (it isn’t) is up for debate, he does occupy the tyrannical paterfamilias roles incredibly well. Homelander controls every member of the Seven, threatening them and their loved ones whenever they step out of line (read: do not do exactly what he wants in the exact way he wants them to do it.) He is also very closely tied with conservative/patriarchal rhetoric in-universe and at one point dates a literal Nazi. 
William Butcher less evil than most of the other characters on this list but the bar is also like, on the ground. Butcher tries to control the Boys in a similar way (Butcher and Homelander are character foils, okay? it’s actually pretty neat). He’s perfectly willing to sacrifice them in pursuit of his own goals, disregards their points of view and the well-being of their loved ones, and tries to cut loose anyone who disagrees with his methods (recall when Hughie tried to rescue his friends at the end of s1 and Butcher… punched him in the face? Yeah, that.) The difference is that the Boys can push back against his without being, you know, brutally murdered. (And also the Butcher isn’t a literal monster; I’m not anti-Butcher, okay? He’s an interesting character and the fact that he seems constantly on the verge of becoming that which he hates most is part of what makes him interesting.)
Guess what, folks? It’s hating Niles Caulder hours. He engineered accidents to turn the main characters into his test subjects, and then kept them conveniently hidden away in his large manor. Stole their autonomy and independence but paints himself as a benevolent father figure. And that’s not even including what he does to his actual daughter, Dorothy. He’s terrified of her growing up (read: becoming a young woman) and so he locks her away for almost 100 years and, when she is freed, yells at her constantly and makes her terrified of showing any signs of maturation (even though she’s 111 and clearly tired of being written off as a child).
The relationship between Ozymandias and his daughter, Lady Trieu, is integral to the final act of Watchmen. Heralded as the “smartest man in the world,” Ozymandias refused to acknowledge his daughter as his until he needed something from her. While Lady Trieu is more self-sufficient and independent than some of the applications of this trope, she goes to great lengths to prove herself, first to him, and then to herself when he rejects her.
Part III: Been a Long Time Gone (Constantinople) 
Gothic fiction is often associated with change, and particularly, the collapse of established systems of power. For example, many works like The House of the Seven Gables and The Fall of the House of Usher take place in old, crumbling manor houses. There is a reason for this! These kinds of estates are remnants of a past that is irreversibly gone, and their continued presence in decrypt forms serves as a reminder. 
Each of the four series takes place at a moment, either on a wide scale or on a personal scale (or both!), in which an established order is being questioned, and the constant reminders of that failed order are used to gothic effect.
The Umbrella Academy plays this most directly (In fact, there are TONS of parallels between the end of s1 of TUA and House of Usher that I don’t have the time to get into right now... lmk if you want that meta). We can see the Hargreeves mansion as a very literal example of this. While not worn down, the house is notably both very large and very empty. Shelves are filled with merchandise for a superhero team that disbanded over a decade prior, and portraits of a family that no longer speaks to each other. None of the family members ever seem truly comfortable or at ease in the house, and for good reason - every back corner is a reminder of their incredibly traumatic childhood. 
In The Boys, the story begins with the fridging death of the main character’s girlfriend, Robin, at the hands of a member of the Seven, a group of heroes so ingrained in the public consciousness that when they later hide out in a costume shop, literally every single costume is for one of Vought’s heroes. The Seven represent the system in power, which, at the disposal of Not-Amazon means corporate greed, shallow altruism, and the cultivation of public personas at the expense of actual humanity. 
From that moment on, the sheer presence of The Seven on everything from public billboards to breakfast cereal is a remainder for Hughie (and the audience) that this established system doesn’t work and is based on lies, which serves this effect on a personal level. In the broader scale, however, we also see that the Seven themselves are fracturing under an unsustainable business model. Even their name, “The Seven” starts to seem a bit dated when halfway through season one through the end of season two there are notably... less than seven of them. 
The main characters in Doom Patrol are all in recovery after the accidents that irreversibly changed their lives. We see through flashbacks the people that they used to be, and the difference is striking. They were each established in their own elements: Cliff a famous race-car driver, Rita a world renowned actress, Larry a hero pilot, Jane was involved in counter-cultural movements, Vic was a student and athlete. The foundations upon which their worlds were established are completely decimated by the accidents, and now they (save Vic and sometimes Jane) live mostly in isolation in Niles’ manor house, an estate that is far larger than would be necessary to comfortably house a group of their size.
And you feel the emptiness, both in the manor, and in the lives of the characters. They have barely created a shadow version of their own existence when the series starts, so fragile that a simple trip into town devolves into utter chaos. 
Angela Abar of Watchmen has also constructed a life following the terrifying act of terrorism on the White Night. It’s a bit of a double life, and we see that the balancing act is challenging for her, even before the story truly begins. The death of Judd Crawford, and the revelation about him that follows is not only traumatizing on a personal level (but it definitely is that), but also upsets her understanding of the world. People she’s come to trust are not just dishonest but truly monstrous. And the more Angela learns about what has been happening, the more her understanding of the world begins to unravel. Her memories, and the memories of those around her are cast in a much more sinister light, and the effect is genuinely chilling. 
Part IV: “I’m the Little Girl Who Threw the Brick in the Air”
In episode 3 of Watchmen, Laurie contacts Dr. Manhattan on the cosmic phone booth to tell him a joke. It’s a version of what TVTropes calls the “brick joke,” and it relies on set up taking place early on, other stuff happening, and then the response coming at an unexpected moment. 
So, yeah. Events of the past/buried secrets resurfacing with consequences in the present.
Continuing with the theme from Watchmen, the entire series is punctuated with the way the past and the present intertwine, with elements from both the original Watchmen graphic novel, and actual American history. One of the things we talked a lot about in my gothic lit class was the manner in which the overhanging specter of past atrocities casts a shadow over the present, and how many works cannot help but have gothic themes because there are so many horrifying things in the past that cannot be ignored, and provide both context and nuance for the discussions we have in the present. No series tackles these topics quite so directly (and with as much care) as Watchmen. (note: it does not always make for easy viewing, but if you’re in a place where you feel like you can engage with that kind of material, I highly recommend the show.)
In Doom Patrol, the past actions of the characters very much control the storyline (see: previous discussion of Niles Caulder), but the character whose storyline I want to talk about here is Rita (partially for plot reasons and partially because I just love Rita, okay?). We learn when we first meet Rita that in the past she was... not a great person. We know that the trauma of the accident that gave her her powers has changed her, we also know that she still holds on to the guilt and that her guilt has limited the scope of her world for years, but we don’t know what exactly it is that she’s done. 
Enter Mr. Nobody, all-powerful narrator who is not just aware of Rita’s greatest sins, but perfectly capable of manifesting reminders of them into the story. She is confronted with empty cradles, and the sound of crying children in the background of many scenes and we see how much it effects her, without a full understanding of why it does (see: The Tell-Tale Heart). Her past begins to haunt her physically, and she begins to crumble in response to it, until finally she is forced to confide in a stranger (and thus the audience). The past actions do not just inform the audience of Rita’s character - they show up to influence her behavior in the present. 
The ending of The Umbrella Academy season 1 is super evocative of the gothic genre with Vanya breaking open the soundproof chamber (wherein she was silenced for years) and rising from the basement to destroy the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy (which would be awesome if the last remnants of the Hargreeves legacy didn’t include the rest of her family). Pretty much every mistake the siblings make over the course of the season feeds together to create the finale, but the primary cause isn’t something any of them actually did. It all ties back to Reginald Hargreeves’ complete inability to be nice to children. Any children. His own and random strangers that need help. 
In The Boys, while the extent to which people are making f-ed up choices in the present cannot be expressed enough, we see through the characters of Homelander that many of the present difficulties are a result of past mistakes. Particularly, the profit-seeking corruption within Vought. We learn in s1 through Vogelbaum that Homelander was raised in a lab by Vought as an experiment, only to be unceremoniously thrust into the spotlight and told he was a superhero (which... does not justify a single one of his actions but is still a major yikes). As the head scientist of the project, Vogelbaum is very aware that ignoring his conscious if the name of research has essentially created the biggest threat their world has ever seen. 
(Seriously y’all just stop raising your super kids in isolation) 
Part V: Put Them Together, and They’re the MF-ing Spice Girls 
Having the environment respond to characters’ emotions/mental states is pretty common in gothic works (it was a dark and stormy night = someone is probably not doing super well). One of the advantages of the genre’s tendency towards the supernatural is that, often, those elements of the stories, as well, are reflections of the main ideas of a work of fiction (see: Stephen King’s really unsubtle period metaphors).
Because all of these shows have a ton of supernatural/scifi elements by virtue of being, well, superhero shows, I thought it would be easier (and more fun!) to come up with a short list of elements, what they mean, and what cases they might apply to.
1. A Nonlinear Experience of Time
The Umbrella Academy: legitimately about time travel. Characters are attempting to fix the timeline but are unable to because they are both mentally and sometimes literally stuck in the past. 
Watchmen: In the episode This Extraordinary Being, Angela experiences firsthand the experiences of her grandfather, under the influence of a drug called Nostalgia. The episode touches on many themes, one of which being the impact of generational trauma in marginalized communities. Throughout the series, Dr. Manhatten is cursed with experiencing all time at once, and the episode A God Walks into Abar illustrates that, because of this, he is constantly facing the consequences of particular actions before, after, and while he is preforming him.
Doom Patrol: Mr. Nobody is able to physically travel to one of Jane’s flashbacks via his fourth-wall breaking powers, and gives Dr. Harrison an ultimatum for the future. 
What it implies: Events, particularly events that evoke guilt or conflict, are not as rooted in the past as one would like to think.
2. Powers/Abilities that reflect personal trauma/failings
Doom Patrol: Larry’s abilities/bond with the Negative Spirit have made it so that he is constantly covering himself with bandages/avoiding other people, which reflects his experiences having to hide his identity as a gay man in the 50/60s. Rita forced herself to walk a thin line, betraying everything in pursuit of her image; her abilities require constant effort to keep her entire body from becoming misshapen and out of control. Vic’s father with boundary issues can literally control his perception of the world through his cybernetic enhancements. Dorothy’s abilities manifest as imaginary friends because she was kept isolated for years at a time. 
The Umbrella Academy: pretty much all of the kids’ powers are representative of the interpersonal skills they were never able to develop. Luther is super-durable but also the most emotionally vulnerable of the group. Five can teleport and time travel but always seems to be too late to stop things. Diego can manipulate the trajectory of projectiles but cannot escape the path his father set out for him, not matter how much he resents it. Vanya always forced herself to stay quiet until the sound literally explodes out of her.
The Boys: Annie’s abilities allow her to control light, but she struggles (in the beginning) to bring to light the horrible things done to her behind closed doors. 
Watchmen: Not technically a power, but Looking Glass’ mirror-mask is a constant reminder of the hall of mirrors that both saved his life and traumatized him forever. 
What it implies: from a story perspective, these allow for an exploration of trauma/guilt to occur on a scale much larger than people simply talking about their problems (as if anyone on any of these shows knows how to talk about their problems...) It also means that the trauma/guilt of the characters takes on a physical form that is able to haunt them, and constantly remind them/hold them accountable for their past actions.
3. Diluted Sense of Reality:
Doom Patrol: The first season is narrated by its main villain, and throughout the season we see that the act of narration itself has an impact on the story.
Watchmen: The event that kicks off the plot of the story is hinged upon a paradox introduced by Angela near the end of the series when trying to speak to her Grandfather in the past through Dr. Manhattan.
The Umbrella Academy: The pair of episodes in season 1, The Day that Wasn’t and The Day That Was take the same point in time and explore two possible avenue for the future from there, with The Day that Wasn’t ending with the events of the entire episode being completely erased from the timeline.
What it implies: you can’t necessarily trust everything you see, even from the audience perspective, giving them a position not unlike that of the characters. The character’s uncertainty and confusion is magnified and reflected in the world that surrounds them.
Other examples: an apocalypse (The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol, Watchmen (of a sort)), ghosts (The Umbrella Academy - hi, Ben!), immortality/invulnerability (Watchmen, Doom Patrol, The Boys), and characters that look significantly younger than they actually are (The Boys, The Umbrella Academy, Doom Patrol). 
Part VI: Why Did You Write a Literal Essay Don’t You Have Real Schoolwork (yes... shhhhh...)
And... there you have it. I don’t really have some grand conclusion here. This is (clearly) far from a complete analysis but it is the most my finals-week brain can concoct at the moment. 
If you have other ideas, let me know! You can always add to the notes or message me – my inbox is always open!  If you got this far, thank you so much for taking the time to read this! Much love! ❤️
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popwasabi · 5 years
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“Stranger Things 3″: The Pain and Love of Nostalgia
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(Warning: SPOILERS ahead for “Stranger Things 3″)
“Stranger Things” most obvious core appeal has always been its campy 80’s throwback.
From the bright neon clothes, its brilliant synthesizer-based soundtrack, use of catchy 80s tunes and references to classic 80s horror and sci-fi, “Stranger Things” undoubtedly harnesses the power of its time period to hook viewers into its show. It’s a show that is rooted firmly in nostalgia and wields it prominently to attract viewers from Gen Xers who grew up in this time period to curious Millennials like myself who watched plenty of the referenced movies.
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(How do I both love and hate this at the same time??)
But “Stranger Things” aesthetic callback is more than just a style; it’s a narrative choice that plays directly into the themes of the story. By playing on viewers’ sense of nostalgia the show is forcing us to see how these characters react to growing up, by literally looking back on a period we cannot go back to, and all the complex emotions that come with these feelings.
To understand this further, we need to look back on etymology of the word nostalgia. In ancient Greece the word has a far more complex meaning that simply reminiscing on the past. It’s root definition actually has more to do with feeling pain than happiness about the past.
You see, nostalgia back then use to describe a condition of deep homesickness or longing for a period we can never return to and the melancholy that comes with it. “Stranger Things” is deeply rooted in this condition and expressed at times quite explicitly by all its characters.
From the very beginning “Stranger Things” nostalgic feel is about how these characters grow up and often times grow up too quickly. From Will being ripped away from his D&D pre-teen friends in season one and his mind infected by the creatures of the Upside Down, to Elle being experimented on before she can even have a childhood, the show takes us on a journey through the emotions of this pain of leaving the past behind and how innocence can be snatched away all too often by meddling adults and/or monsters in this case.
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(Some VERY  big monsters in many cases.)
This theme is by far its most present in “Stranger Things 3” as our band of nerds are now all teenagers trying to navigate hormones, young love and looking back on a childhood they can never have back and all the real horrors in between. It’s not just the youngest characters who deal with the pain of nostalgia, however; our adult heroes and heroines also inevitably deal with the pain of reminiscing on the past on lives that are permanently changed.
But the ultimate theme here isn’t just about the pain we associate with the past but that despite many things inevitably changing in your life, if you hold on to those closest to you in this journey that won’t change at least and the pain you feel is only a reminder that what you felt was real.
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(#Feels)
“Stranger Things 3” does a great job of immediately telling the viewer how different things are this season compared to the previous two. Elle and Mike can’t stop making out, as does Lucas and Max, and Nancy and Jonathan are trying to navigate the complex and often humiliating adult workplace. There’s even a new monument to capitalism in Hawkin’s new Star Court Mall. But many of the other characters aren’t handling change all that well. Still new dad Hopper is having a hard time processing that Elle likes boys now, Dustin has spent most of the summer away from his best friends who seem disinterested in his new projects (and suspected made-up girlfriend), all while Will struggles mightily to keep the gang’s old D&D interests alive while his friends suck face.
There’s a tremendous sadness here reflected with these characters that viewers who watched these kids in the previous two seasons will immediately feel. They aren’t quite the same kids they used to be and they’ve grown a bit a part as they’ve grown up literally. We feel Dustin’s and Will’s pain (especially the latter given what he went through) that things are different and will never be quite the same between these friends. It’s a pain that many of us have definitely experienced growing up as we age out of hobbies, places and in some cases our friends.
Another character that has to deal pretty personally with nostalgic pain in this season is quite clearly everyone’s favorite dad Steve Harrington. The once king of Hawkins High has now been reduced to scooping ice cream at the mall to eke out a living. It’s a humiliating fall from grace for a young man who was once the most popular person in town. He’s spends much of this season trying to desperately to hold on to appearances, whether it’s only being interested in women who can up his status or pretending he doesn’t understand nerdy platitudes.
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(Seriously, who hasn’t felt inadequate as fuck working a shitty customer service job before?)
Meanwhile Hopper, who probably struggles with change the most this season, gets quite aggressive with Mike and his advances on his adoptive daughter Elle. This isn’t helped by the fact that he still struggles with feelings he still has for Joyce and he often has self-destructive ways of dealing with these emotions. Though his actions border on problematic during the season Hopper’s transformation and acceptance is perhaps the most touching of the series as he lets Elle spread her wings and accepts change in the season’s finale in a bittersweet sendoff.
It’s season’s 3’s “villain” Billy though that we get the saddest feelings we associate with nostalgia. We learn that Billy’s attitude and views on others are more tied to his past than anyone else as we see a much sweeter more innocent kid who just loved his mom when he was a child who has changed so much. As with the series overarching messages its again tied to how easily innocence can be ripped away by bad adults whether its story’s primary villain of secret government agencies running lab tests on children and Interdimensions or in Billy’s case simply a drunk, evil belligerent father. This season finally explains where Billy’s bad attitude comes from and how much he’s changed for the worst because of the way his upbringing has treated him.
This season really shows how when we’re all at our lowest we all wish we could just go back to the way things were and journey back to a simpler time. It’s why nostalgia, no matter how happy the memory is, has a sadness to it; because we know we can never go back.
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(I mean yeah, but it doesn’t get this dark.)
It’s through the events of season 3’s story though that we see how nostalgia isn’t all about pain and that there are still constants from our past that we can rely on in the present; namely those we love. The season begins by splintering the huge cast of characters by pitting their emotions against one another, but they each pick up a single piece of the larger puzzle of the plot that ultimately leads them back to one another and because of their past ties they are able to quickly move on from their pain and work together once again as a team. In this way nostalgia reminds us that it’s not all about pain but about love and more importantly and how they make our lives worth living. Though hormonally these kids have changed and their interests are more related to puberty now than Dungeons and Dragons they still care about one another and will do anything to keep each other safe (not to mention save the world). The adults in this story function the same way, quickly setting aside any past bitterness for the greater good.
Love is the ultimate uniter here that brings past to present and its why this fellowship of characters are able to win in the end.
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(Daaaawww..)
Growing up is an often painful process and that occurs no matter what stage of life you’re in. Whether it’s like our pre-teen gang of nerds going through puberty, working our first humiliating job like Nancy or Steve as young adults or reminiscing on past what-might’ve-beens or child-rearing issues like Hopper its difficult when we all hit our next inevitable change in our life. We don’t want things to change because we often are happy with whatever stage we were once in. Sometimes we fight it, alienate others in the process and cause even more heartache for ourselves than we ever should.
But what “Stranger Things” reminds us is that despite all this, if we keep those we love and care about closest to us these changes won’t be so painful and drastic. We’ll at least get to go through all of it together.
So yes, nostalgia can be quite painful at times. There’s always going to be melancholy and some level of sadness we associate with the past and though we may fight it there are still friends, family and loved ones who will remain constants through it all in our lives.
All we can do is hold on to them for as long as we can and through those we love maybe we can keep a bit of that past alive forever.
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*sniffs* I’m not crying, YOU’RE CRYING!
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As much as it pains me to think about, the odds are great that we will have to endure a great loss when July 4 rolls around. I have seen many people talking about who is going to die, if anyone, and I've seen people say Dustin, Nancy, Jonathan, Hopper, Erica, among others. I have also seen people say that "this isn't Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, they're not going to kill anyone major off."I strongly disagree with this statement. Stranger Things has proven itself to be very dark and rather ruthless. We have seen the possession and exorcism of a 13 year old kid, a man devoured alive by interdimensional demodogs in front of the woman who loved him, we've seen the deaths of countless minor characters (Barbara, Benny, and countless unnamed victims of the Demogorgon in Season 1, and the casualties of the attack on Hawkins Lab in season 2), it is evidently clear that death is not something unknown to the show. If minor characters can be killed, then the threat to our main characters is still present. And 3 seasons in, there's only so much plot armor can do to protect the main group.In addition to this, to reiterate what I have said, 3 seasons in I think it is absolutely necessary to bump someone off. Not because it would be fun to see, but it would keep this show grounded in reality. While by no means am I saying that this show is realistic, the experiences and themes of the show are things that we can all relate to. And after two and a half years of this shit, things start to get a little bit silly. My reaction if no one died by the end would be, "damn, no one? Really? They all emerged from the most perilous season yet with just some cuts and scrapes?" No thank you.The slogan of season 3 has been "One Summer Can Change Everything." A statement that I think has been overlooked by this fandom, there is something huge that is going to happen that will change the show, and likely for the worst. And what better way to throw a wrench in then to have someone finally bite the dust?I think Steve will meet his end by the end of season 3. Here are my reasons:His character arc is complete. In season 1, most of us saw Steve had a douchey jock with little regard for others. Even though I was one of the people who advocated that he was actually a good person in season 1, I can see what the issue was there. He was jealous, cocky, a bad influence, immature at times, etc. In season 2, we see him as a loving boyfriend who, initially, has no involvement with the upside down shit that's happening. He goes through heartbreak, and at the same time he's been forced to step up in the biggest way to protect several kids from demodogs, in the junkyard, gets the shit kicked out of him by Billy, and protects the kids as the burn the upside down tunnels. He goes through hell and back, and has solidified his status as a fan favorite by the end. While he has some stuff to do with this season, I can't really see him going anywhere else. There isn't much for him to grow into now that he is the Mom of 6.It would be appropriate for Steve to die in a glorious manner. Steve has become the definition of selfless and protecting. It would totally be in his character to die by throwing himself in front of a bullet for Dustin, or protecting the kids as he swings off herds of upside down baddies with his bat, all while screaming behind him for the kids to run, save themselves. He would die honorably and in a way that would do justice to his legacy, and saving the ones he loves. As much as it would pain me to see Steve go, I think it would be downright beautiful for Steve to run into a group of Russian agents with his bat and fight them all off in an effort to protect the party, but ultimately meets his end. Call it what you like, but that's something I would pay to see.The show won't fail if he goes. The line "If Steve dies, we riot," stems from a line by The Walking Dead fandom as it pertains to Daryl; if Daryl dies, we riot. However, Daryl, is also quite literally the backbone of the show. The big 3 of TWD were (in my opinion) Rick, Daryl, and Carl. Killing Daryl in TWD would be like killing Dustin or Lucas in ST. It's just not feasible. The show would tank. But killing Steve would be like killing Glenn. Glenn, a selfless fan favorite, was killed and even the show did tank afterward, it was not because of this. Steve is Glenn. If Steve dies, the show will continue, but it will just be a really, really sad death. In ST, we still have the kids, Hopper, Joyce, Nancy and Jonathan and plently of other people to keep the show moving. My point is, ST can afford to kill Steve. And it would fit.People like Hopper, Jonathan, and Nancy have enough plot armor to protect them. The other biggest candidates for death are these three to me. But I think that they have enough going for them to be protected another season at least. Hopper is safe for a few reasons. The first reason being is that he is obviously going to be the love interest of Joyce this season. To kill both of Joyce's lovers 2 seasons in a row would be way to repetitive and recycled material. Not to mention we still have at least 2 more seasons of Eleven, and she's gonna need her Dad there. I believe Hopper's death is likely, but perhaps in the final season. Jonathan is safe because he is Will's brother. And lord knows, Will has been through way too much shit in the last couple years, and he is going to going through more this season. Killing of his brother and also father figure would just be way to much. I believe Nancy is safe because I think she still has a much longer way go to in terms of Jonathan, and her relationship with Mike leaves a lot to be desired. With just these three examples, I'm just saying that with all the other characters, loose ends still need to be tied. With Steve, everything has been summed up. Except maybe his potential story line with Robin, but I think that will be a one season thing, I don't really see it becoming a big thing like Jopper or Jancy or Mileven or Lumax, etc.In conclusion, I think it is both likely and appropriate for Steve Harrington to die this scene. His arc is complete and his character, while lovable, relatable, and a fan favorite of mine and many others, has not much place to go. The only place he can go is a to sacrifice himself in the most legendary way possible to save the party with his nail-bat in hand. The armor that exists in the cases of other characters is lacking with Steve, and despite the fact that many love him, the show needs to take a step forward in this direction to keep the story grounded and interesting.Whatever may happen, I hope that season 3 does Steve Harrington well, and if he does pass away, his legacy will live on in our hearts.PS. Thanks for reading all this! This is the second time I've written a post like this, and the last one got over 200 comments. So I thought I'd do another one. I'll be reading all the comments. Cheers :) via /r/StrangerThings
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thesffcorner · 5 years
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Daisy Jones and the Six
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Daisy Jones & the Six is contemporary biography of the fictional 70’s folk-rock band Daisy Jones and the Six, written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Told in interviews with the with the various band members and people surrounding the band, we track their rise to fame and their inevitable eventual dissolution, and everyone has a different opinion on why it happened. I have only read one other Taylor Jenkins Reid book, which was her previous venture The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. That was one of my favorite books of 2018; it’s hard not to compare these two books since they have a similar premise. They both follow the life of a celebrity icon who is finally after years opening up about her experiences; they both are written in an interview style, and they both have a subtle mystery running through the story. I have to say, I was more intrigued by the plot of this book, because I’m always interested in musicians, especially larger than life rock bands. I watched an interview with Reid where she spoke about watching the Dance as a child and her fascination with Fleetwood Mac; how these two people who clearly had all these strong unresolved feelings would write songs about one another, and then force each other to sing them on stage. That interview sold me on the book even more than just the premise, and boy did this story deliver. Now that I have sat on my feelings I have to say I like it even more than Evelyn, and that’s because it’s subject matter and themes spoke to me on a much more personal level. Outside of that, Reid managed to perfectly capture not just the relationship between these two broken, but talented people, but also the band in all it’s glory and turmoil, and reading about the Six felt as authentic as the story of a real band. This book follows the parallel paths of Daisy Jones and Billy Dune. Daisy is the daughter of an artist and a model growing up in LA, while Billy and his brother Graham grow up with an grow up an alcoholic father who then abandons them. A lot of these early experiences later shape the way both of these people interact not just with each-other but with everyone else, including the other band members. I’ve heard people complain that the start of the book is very confusing because of how many perspectives we follow, but I strongly disagree with this. I personally love finding out how bands and artists got their start, and it was very fun to learn how the Dunne Brothers got their start. I also really liked a lot of the other band members; Karen was my favorite, and though I wasn’t a huge fan of Graham and Eddy, there were many points in the novel where I absolutely agree with what they were saying, and understood where they were coming from. Musicians are ego driven people, like most artists, and a lot of the band’s disagreements had to do with the band members not knowing how to manage each other’s as well as their own egos. One of the smartest thing this book does, is it will have a character say something, and then immediately after the rest of the band would contradict them. Not only do all these different people remember things differently, but also you could see exactly where the friction lines in the band were drawn. A lot of the disagreements are around Billy, who seems to be the most stubborn and delusional of the characters. He is the focus of this story, even more than Daisy herself, which was kind of not fun for me because he was my least favorite member of the band. Billy was a very well developed and written character, but unfortunately most to everything he did annoyed me incredibly. There’s no denying that he was a talented musician and songwriter, but it was hard not to back up the other band members when he callously made them feel like second class citizens in their own band, changed their rifs and compositions without even consulting them, and ordered them how to play their own instruments. That’s small potatoes compared to what he puts both Daisy, but also his wife Camilla. There were many points in the story where I was having a hard time someone would forgive the things Camilla forgave or would be so tolerant; I understood what Reid was trying to show, but I just personally don’t think Billy was at all worth the effort on Camilla's part. As for the romance between Billy and Daisy, I didn’t find it on equal ground or really compelling. Yes, Daisy does some messed up things to Billy, and she’s high a lot of the time and not even really functional, but I was once in a very similar relationship with someone to what she and Billy have, and I found myself rooting for her always, even when I knew she wasn’t making the right choice. I was as angry as she was, as sad as she was, and the part that hurt me the most reading this was Billy’s absolute refusal to address or even acknowledge what is happening. There is nothing more infuriating than being lead to believe you are crazy for imagining something that is clearly true, or ever thinking you could be worth love by someone you have high esteem for. I have never done drugs like Daisy, I am not pretty like her and I certainly don’t think I am as talented or will ever be successful like her, but I understood her on a deep, emotional level. Wanting to be heard, wanting for people to see you for the person you are not just the muse you could be to someone else, or the way you look, and thinking you finally found someone like that, only for that person to pretend he hates you, or that you are crazy for seeing what is obvious to everyone but him… I have never related so strongly to a character in my life. That’s why I liked this book more than Evelyn; Evelyn was a flawed character that I don’t think anyone could really relate to; Daisy on the other hand felt all too real to me. Outside of the romance, this book explores a lot of other themes that were also interesting. There is the issue of collaborative efforts and how much of what you made in the end is really yours. Billy is presented as a dictator in this band; it’s not really the Six, it’s Billy and his 5 servants, and because of what he does to his band-mates throughout the course of their career and album writing I couldn’t blame any of them for being resentful of him. However his changes make the album a timeless classic, so how much of that was him changing things, and would the album have been as good had he let the rest of the and participate on equal terms? It’s a strange feeling to have to wrestle with. There is also a lot of exploration of feminism, and how women had very few ways they could act in the 70’s to achieve what they wanted. I liked that all 3 of our female characters were vastly different, and wanted different things out of life, and none of their ways were presented as wrongheaded or lesser than others. Camilla wanted children and being a mother; Karen wanted to be a rock-star, and Daisy wanted to be an artist heard by the world. Daisy is willing to play the male game to some extent, though she is always mostly doing things for her. Karen is a lot more hostile to the game as a whole, and as such I liked her best. The part that really sold me on her character was where she talks about not auditioning in her blue mini dress, because even though she wanted to, she knew the band would never see her as a musician, but just a girl. The theme I resonated with strongest, was that of what it means to be an artist who’s so genuine in their writing. There were two passages that I think strongly illustrate what I feel on this subject; the first one is: ”I care about you, because when I see you I see an incredible writer - who suffers from the very thing my husband suffers from. The two of you think you are lost souls, but you’re what everybody is looking for” pg. 320 And the second is: I came to hate that I put my heart and my pain into my music because it meant that I couldn’t ever leave it behind. And I had to keep singing it to him, night after night, and I could no longer hide how it felt or what being next to him it was doing to me. It made for great shows. But it was my life” pg. 300 Art is complicated. We make art because we want to be heard, we want someone else to understand us in a way that’s truly about us, and all that we feel, and think and stand for. But when you are so close to your art it’s impossible not to make your life hell if you ever create something so inextricably tied up in the darkest, most insecure parts of yourself or your life. And this book understood that better than anything else I’ve read. There is a lot more that I could discuss about this book, but I think if this hasn’t sold you on it, than nothing more I say will. Reid is a master of world-building and character writing, and she packs so much personality and covers so many topics in her work that I am truly impressed. I can go on and on about how well the 70’s are presented, how well the characters are written, but at the end of the day that’s not what made me love this book. It’s how it made me feel. And it made me feel the same way a song that I really connect with on a deep level makes me feel; like someone out there understands me, and I am not alone.
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douxreviews · 5 years
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Charmed - Season Two Review
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"Our job is to protect the innocent, not punish the guilty."
In a lot of respects, Charmed's second season is stronger that the first. With no real "sophomore slump" to speak of, the series quickly settles into a fantastic run of episodes that make great use of the groundwork laid by the debut season. Spoilers and Gordon bashing ahead!
Season opener 'Witch Trial' is brimming with confidence. There's such an ease to how this season uses each sister, and how they interact has never felt more organic and fun than it does here. Following the previous season's finale, Andy's death is still causing ricochets through the Halliwells' lives, and Prue's struggle to get back on the “witch's saddle” is played really well. There's a heartbreaking monologue in the premiere in which Prue voices her struggles with her ability to do good, when she feels like she's responsible for her first love's death. Shannen was always one of the strongest cast members, and that scene always springs to mind when I think of how great she was in this role. The way Piper and Phoebe comfort Prue in this moment feels so right, too. I love these three gals.
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The best of episode of the season (and a series highlight) is 'Morality Bites', an even more affecting hour than the premiere. It features the show's third major brush with time travel – this time to the future – where a decision to punish a guilty man leads to Phoebe literally burning at the stake. Though it relies on some simple ideas, there's a powerful lesson to be learned, with the sisters facing the hard truth behind why they can only use their powers to protect, not punish. That one line always hits me where it hurts: "The wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing.". 'Morality Bites' is also Alyssa Milano's best work; you can really feel Phoebe's pain throughout. There's a further brush with time travel later on in the season as well and although it doesn't resonate quite as much as 'Morality Bites', there's still a lot of fun to be had. 'Pardon My Past' toys with the theory of past lives and how souls can grow and evolve over time. The hour neatly ties into that recurring theme of Phoebe's latent dark side, a concept that was explored to great effect in last season's 'Woogy' episode. And who can resist an opportunity to dress up the cast in 20's garb?
Season Two also picks up where episodes like 'That '70s Episode' left off, delving further into the intriguing Halliwell family history, notably in 'P3H2O', a powerful chapter that reveals the girls' mother's affair with her former Whitelighter Sam (a twist that becomes quite significant – and very useful for the producers – come Season Four). The episode itself features some beautiful and heart-breaking moments for each sister: Piper falling into her mother's footsteps with Leo and eventually realising that she has to let him go; Phoebe being forced into reliving her mother's final moments in order to stop the demon who killed her; and Prue confronting her fear head on and eventually avenging Patty's death. There are some lighter episodes that make great use of the dynamic performances of the core cast, too. Despite some questionable examples of this ('She's a Man, Baby, a Man'), episodes like 'Astral Monkey' and 'Chick Flick' are a lot of fun, with the latter standing out as one of the best examples of how inventive and sharp the writing team could be when they really wanted to.
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What lets the second year down is the introduction of the series' first truly sucky characters: Dan and Jenny Gordon. The latter's brief run of episodes seems to serve very little purpose other than to throw in a younger person's perspective into the series and force Dan into the Halliwells' lives. Her barely explained disappearance after just a handful of episodes seems to indicate some sort of an awareness of how grating a character she ended up becoming. As dull as he is, Dan isn't necessarily as problematic as the storyline he represents; the show's worst love triangle. He's a total bore, but I feel like he's more of a victim of circumstance than anything else, primarily serving as a c*ck-block between Piper and the then well-established Leo, who were clearly the end-game couple of the series. His hasty exit at the close of the season is probably the only reprieve where his arc is concerned, allowing Piper and Leo to properly pursue their love affair, which leads to more threatening, and subsequently more interesting roadblocks in Season Three. I do feel obliged to point out how awful Leo is for a significant portion of this arc. He's unfair, judgmental and forces Piper into some very uncomfortable situations just to prove a point. Give a girl some room! Leo's struggles with his temporary transition back to human form are mildly interesting, though they don't last very long and are drowned out by the melodramatic hoopla of the love triangle.
An unfortunate amount of this season’s run time is spent on Piper's conflicting feelings for Dan and Leo, but we do get some great character work elsewhere. Piper's professional life sees a major overhaul following her decision to quit her job at Quake last season, as she transitions from restaurant manager to club owner. Said establishment, P3, is a fun hub of activity for the girls, and a handy way for the network to parade a multitude of musical guests onto the show. It also feels like the right move for a character who's starting to really come into her own and take control of her life. Prue's deconstruction from the uptight matriarch of the family continues this season, with episodes like 'Ms Hellfire' playing with her wild side. In that regard, her decision to leave her by-the-numbers job at Buckland's to pursue her actual dream of becoming a photographer makes total sense, though it still baffles me how an inexperienced photographer like her managed to worm her way into a job at an established magazine. Phoebe's arc weirdly feels like it's bringing both Prue and her back to some kind of middle ground; just as the eldest sibling starts to let go of her inhibitions, Phoebe makes the decision to start becoming more responsible and actively pursues her unfinished college degree. Gone are the days of the hotel lobby psychic! Like Prue and Piper's arcs, Phoebe's also feels natural and right for her character, and is satisfying for those who have been following her journey since the first episode.
Potions and Notions
Darryl is brought in on the magical secret in 'Ms Hellfire', which thankfully curbs the risk of any repeat of the antagonism the girls faced from a frustrated Andy last season.
Prue is the first sister to develop a whole new power this season; Astral Projection. It's actually a fairly cool advancement and it's used really well.
The Source, the leader of the underworld, is mentioned for the first time in ‘Give Me a Sign’.
Spells and Chants
Phoebe: "The wrong thing done for the right reason is still the wrong thing."
Prue: "I know someone who can see anything." Phoebe: "Oh, no. Wait a minute. You tiptoe around the subject of Mom, you deny looking like her, you can't even go to the end of that dock because you're afraid to walk in her footsteps and now you want me to relive her last moments? How is that fair?" Prue: "It's not. None of this is. Mom's death, Sam's guilt. But I'm asking you to help me end it."
Piper: "Wait, Phoebe, you enrolled? This is huge!" Phoebe: "Hugest thing I've done since I came back home. I mean, aside from vanquishing demons and saving the world from evil, of course."
Billy: “Don’t you just hate exposition?” Phoebe: “Tell me about it…”
Best Episode: Morality Bites.
Honorable Mentions: Witch Trial, P3H2O, Ms Hellfire, Pardon my Past, Murphy's Luck, Chick Flick, Astral Monkey.
Worst Episode: They're Everywhere!
The show's second year is permeated by some drab and drawn out love-life drama, but it's largely a solid follow-up to the show's charming opening season, one that ups the ante and includes several episodes that are among the series' best.
8 out of 10 magic monkeys.
Panda
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amwritingmeta · 6 years
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The Players on the Board
Dean - will make a choice, hopefully it’s a rational one tied to his faith in deserving a future… but…
Cas - may be forced into one helluva position… but…
Sam - will most likely get a chance to confront Lucifer once and for all… but…
Jack - will most likely end the season going dark side… but…
AU!Michael - will most likely carry the torch of Big Bad into S14… but…
Rowena - will be instrumental and, most likely, fully powered again… but…
Lucifer - will most likely die
Billie - keeps her hands clean and refuses to get involved… but…
Ketch - may die (for Mary)
Mary - will live, I do believe, at least I hope so. I don’t think her journey’s over… but…
Bobby and the Sunshine Gang - I think they may stick around until we’re a few episodes into next season… but I honestly don’t know. It all depends on how they handle the AU arc. It feels like a dual season that will carry on into the next, unless they make Jack the Big Bad, but I can’t see that happening without Cas going with him and I can’t see Cas going with Jack looking at where the narrative has positioned all the players so… yeah… it’s all very curious… and all very much spec! 
Honestly, this post is mostly me rambling and should probably possibly not be taken too seriously. I’ll be so curious to see if I land even in the ballpark. I’m much more happy if I land in the ballpark emotionally with the characters, rather than plot wise, because the plot has a billion possibilities in it! 
Truth be told, I wrote this wanting to stay up and watch the episode live, but after a week in Rome and a day of work I’m crashing now. Be back bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow. So sorry about the quiet during JiB! I’ll post about that tomorrow!! You’re all awesome and ILY. Niiiiight. See you on the other side. Don’t read my ramblings. I’m just saving them for posterity! 
Let’s Talk Scenarios 
1. Jack Goes Dark Side
Why would he go dark side, when we’ve been shown, all season, how he’s been afraid of this side of himself, how he’s fought to reject it, struggled with what it says about him and what it means that his father is the Devil, and we’ve seen him strive to embrace humanity at every turn? 
I mean, to my mind he even fought off this side to himself as an infant, rejecting it unequivocally from the womb and choosing Cas as his protector while burning Dagon to a crisp. Dagon - the demon who embodied the protector chosen for him and sent by his father to corrupt him into spreading suffering across the world. This tells us that Jack’s goodness is the prevalent side.
So, why would he go dark side?
Firstly, let me comment on the “but” in the scenario. (I shan’t make dirty jokes I shan’t)
I always thought that Jack was bound to go dark side at some point because that felt like such a given, right? We’ve all thought that. He has Heaven, Humanity and Hell inside of him, and it’s most likely crucial for him to explore all three sides before he’s able to find the inner balance necessary for him to bring balance everywhere else. 
But… in 13x14 Meredith Glynn pitted Jack against Zachariah’s masterful brain twisting ways and Jack saw right through him. My theory was always that he would be corrupted by outside influences, because it has felt like a recurring theme and would tie in with the nature/nurture commentary as well, and Meredith’s use of Isaiah spoke to me of how, perhaps, Jack wasn’t destined for this type of corruption after all. 
He withstood it and came out stronger for it, escaping with Mary and ending up saving lives. Of course, he also finished the episode dressing himself in the lessons he’d been taught by his ultimate father figures - Dean and Sam - coming to the wrongful conclusion that it’s on him to kill Michael.
Using his powers the way Cas is using them now, as a weapon, has a wholly bad connotation to it.
Mary’s comments in 13x22 made me pause as well.
Mary: Jack isn’t going to the dark side. He’ll see Lucifer’s true nature. And he’ll see it through his own eyes - not yours.
God damn it I could meta this moment into infinity with the let go of your need for control, Dean, or shit will happen. 
And here’s the shitty thing that could very well happen: Dean killing Lucifer for Sam. 
They’ve foreshadowed it, especially with Dean’s prolonged look at Lucifer before walking through the rift in 13x20. And now Lucifer has a hold over Sam by saving Sam’s life. And Dean sees Lucifer as a threat to Jack, which means a threat to everything, and now Lucifer is on cahoots with Michael… yeah, bad shit all around.
If Dean kills Lucifer out of need for control, then it’s possible he’ll lose any control he might’ve had over Jack, any influence whatsoever, and the fact that he robs Jack of the chance to see Lucifer through his own eyes - not through Dean’s - might bring about one hell of a narrative punishment. Dean is Jack’s foremost father figure. Not Sam, nor Cas. Sam is the supportive uncle and Cas has been too absent to actually teach lessons. Jack takes after Dean’s shown behaviour and most of Dean’s shown behaviour has been grief-laden toxic masculinity. 
He’s let that go now, but has Jack really had a chance to see it? Not yet. And being included and accepted by Dean this late in the game, and possibly having such a huge choice taken from him when it comes to getting to know his father and make up his own mind about him and what role he should play in his life, it’s possible this would serve to cause an emotional reaction in Jack so great that he begins to reject his humanity and embrace his darker side, simply in order to learn who he truly is and find some other way into that choice.
I don’t know, though. I doubt they’d want to make Jack the new Big Bad, because the Big Bad shouldn’t make people cry and tear their hair that they’re doing bad things. The season Big Bad should pose a real threat and we should want to watch them go down in flames - which can then be flipped, as it was with Amara. Anyway, Jack going dark side would probably not last longer than the dark arcs Cas (Godstiel) or Dean (Deanmon), or they’ll make it a reflection of Sam’s exploration of his powers, but in that case it would make more sense to keep Jack with TFW and have him be a gun under the table.
If he goes proper dark and takes off, I’m unsure if that arc could last more than a handful of episodes (though anything’s possible) and we also have a Dark Horse in this new version of Dean on the horizon and I wonder if they’d want to pile it all on.
2. Cas - the Weapon or the Shield 
I mean, he is both - they all are - but there’s a predominant leaning towards the weapon lately, when all season he’s been describing himself as the shield.
How many times has he said that he promised Kelly to protect her son? (many many times)
That could be as the weapon, but protection, to me, sounds more like the wall standing between you and the bullet. He didn’t start dressing himself as the weapon, not properly, until after Jack went into the AU. And now we’ve landed in the blue glow of his angel eyes being associated with pain, torture and suffering. 
This is possibly a fantastic foreshadowing for Dean’s eyes glowing blue with angel grace at the end of the episode (because at JiB Jensen spoiled the fact that the image of this other version of Dean will most likely be the final one when he told us that he hasn’t actually played this other version yet)
Now, I’ve written a meta post on 13x19 that has to do with Cas and Choice.
Is it plausible that a situation arises where Cas says he can’t stay and Dean steps in with his words going Hell to the Yes, you Can and you Will, dumbass.
Yeah, it’s plausible. 
It seems imperative that Cas stops with the glow-y eyes already, or I fear he’ll start losing himself. It’s also quite beautiful in the sense that he clearly can’t see any other way of existing than this, because how can he rid himself of his grace when Heaven is failing? So it’s almost as if he’s resigned himself to the role he once assigned himself at this point - that of the weapon and believing it’s his only purpose. It’s made a point of in dialogue between him and torture!Cas in the AU, when Cas agrees that they’re the same. *screaming ghost face emoji* 
YOU ARE NOT THE SAME AT ALL, CASTIEL!!
And he doesn’t look like he fully agrees, he doesn’t look accepting of this fact - he looks conflicted once he’s stabbed this alternate version of himself. So where does that leave his arc in the finale? What does he need as we push forward? Where’s he at, you might ask?
Well, he needs perspective. He needs to understand he’s wanted for something other than his powers. He needs a way to tap fully into that humanity that’s just beneath the surface now… But this might be something they want to use and build on for S14, you know? Use how Cas’ inner conflict grows bigger and bigger until he’s forced to make a choice for himself. 
Heaven will need to be saved for him to actually make that choice, of course, because there’s no way in Heaven or on Earth that Cas will become human if it threatens humanity. And humanity is under threat from Heaven failing and Cas’ grace is one of a few batteries powering it and yes, I do believe this to be true, even if I’m not 100% sure I trust Naomi’s reformation.
There’s also the aspect of how Dean needs to use his goddamn words already. And since we got the codependency focus in the beauty of 13x21 I also do believe there’s a good chance we’ll get a Dean and Cas focused scene in this one. So will Cas finally begin to feel wants through Dean telling him that he is, and I mean properly expressing it, not in a “you’re our brother” way, but haltingly telling Cas what losing him actually did to him, or some such thing. 
I’m very curious and hopeful that we’ll get something like this, BUT judging by the promo, Dean makes a TFW speech of facing whatever comes together, which, hey, I’ll take it, but it’s not the same. It’s not the release Dean needs. (and we need) :P
And then we have Dean’s attitude in that promo, with Dean wanting and believing that they can have a future… *goose bumps* *goose bumps all over* Because that’s the final fucking stage, guys. He’s not just cusping anymore. It’s quite possible he’s standing on that peak and is about to race down it and spread his arms and scream FREEEEEEDOOOOOOOOM.
I mean, there will still be road blocks and obstacles and internal battles to fight. Just not the same ones we’ve been watching for 13 seasons. Shift in dynamics. Balls out. All the way. Yes please and thank you.
3. Dean Making a Choice
So, I’ve written a bit about this already and said that my greatest hope for Dean with whatever situation he’s about to face is that he steps into it not frantic and desperate to save everyone else, but calm and trusting that everything will be alright in the end, because he has faith and because he now wants a future, and he can’t believe that he would be put in this situation to turn out the lights, he feels in his bones that it’s to switch them on. 
He’s not facing down this threat in order to go out in a blaze of glory - he’s facing it to ensure he has a future to come back to.
That’s my biggest hope for him, so the fact that we now have a scene where he’s expressing hope for the future is pretty… yeah. It’s pretty as fuck.
I mean, hope for the future is a huge, huge bold sign that Dean is beginning to find self-worth. Do you know what that means for the shift in dynamics? Do you know what this means for the love story? *can’t sit still in my chair* I’ll talk more about this in another few paragraphs (or many more) (I don’t know) (fingers decide)
I would love for Dean to say yes to Michael, but the thing is… it’s so EARLY. We’re at the possible probable midpoint of a dual seasonal arc.
Well, what does Dean need? Truly?
a) He needs to let go of his need for control. Now, honestly, if we do get Dean saying yes to Michael, and Michael is in the guise of young John (since Matt Cohen is rumoured to be guest starring), then we get Dean granting admittance to one of the most formidable representatives of toxic masculinity that we’ve ever had on the show, and he looks like the YOUNG version of Dean’s father, the uncorrupted, loving, whole man who was supposed to raise Dean, rather than the broken and haunted drunk that ended up doing such a poor job of it for the most part, then imagine THAT visual manifestation of how Dean has moved on from the toxic masculinity ideal and is now embracing the truth of his father’s individuality.
Like DAMN. 
But that’s detail spec and one should never really do that. (oh well fuck it) (it’d just be a cool moment)
Letting go of his need for control peters into everything and affects the codependency positively. In 13x22 this has been set up, with Sam stepping up to the plate, speaking over Dean and taking charge, and Dean pretty much being ok with it. He’s allowing Sam to grow the fuck up. It’s beautiful!! 
b) He needs to speak the fuck up after a season of half-truths, stumbling on his words or keeping things completely unspoken. I mean, that’s what we all think. Right? Right. And what needs to happen before he can use his words? He needs to feel trust - in himself. And what shows that he’s beginning to trust in himself? The fact that he’s looking to the goddamn future, that’s what!
He’s not expecting to die. He doesn’t want to die. He thinks he deserves a damn BEACH HOLIDAY. *screams victory into the void* *it echoes forever*
How does he need to use his words? Well. I think he’s showing Sam that he trusts him to have his back, and to take care of himself, but it’s possible the codependency needs him to verbalise this.
However, we have the setup in 13x21 that dealt with Sam’s death and Dean’s reaction to it. Which was to reluctantly make the tactical decision to listen to Cas that it was too late to save Sam and they had to keep going in order to save the other people in their care and get to Jack and Mary, fulfil the mission…
So where might he need to use his words…
Okay, before I get into Destiel, because as much as I kind of don’t want to even speculate, I have some speculation after going through all these notes today, but before that, let’s talk about Sam.
4. Sam and Lucifer and stuff
Is Sam meant to kill Lucifer? Well, revenge is a savage beast that leaves no satisfaction, and we have a visual narrative underlining of that through Gabriel’s fallen expression after he’s assured Sam he feels awesome having killed everyone on his list. The revenge quest of 13x20 is stupid. That’s the whole point of that narrative - to point out the stupidity and futility of indulging in that feeling of more wrongs somehow righting a wrong done to you. 
You can’t heal your wounds by inflicting wounds or a killing blow - you heal your wounds by letting go of all that anger and hatred and moving on from it. Forgiveness and understanding is a balm for the soul.
Would Sam take a shot at Lucifer if given the chance, though? Yes, he would. So… It’s possible this chance presents itself in the finale, and if Lucifer does die… that’s another archangel gone. Stakes continuously raised for how exactly to save Heaven, eh?
If Sam does get a chance to kill Lucifer, I almost wish he’ll step down. That he’ll realise that he is in control of the situation, of himself, of his own choices, and he doesn’t have to fear himself and what he’s capable of anymore. He won’t lose control. He’s all grown up now - he doesn’t need his father figure to guide him. He needs to let go of Dean. (I mean, obviously he’ll need to save Dean from whatever the fuck is headed his way but you know) (symbolically Sam needs to push Dean away and dare strike out on his own)
Sam should lead.
And the fact that the bunker is now full of seasoned hunters/soldiers is a fantastic position to put him in, wholly enabling the born leader that he truly is. And, by the by, when I say lead I don’t mean burst through doors with a weapon, I mean he should be at the hub of communication, he should be in the bunker running logistics and doing research, he should fucking MoL, shouldn’t he? 
Yes. He. Should.
And perhaps now, being put in this position, the lights will start flicking on in that stubborn head of his and he’ll begin to see what the bunker could be, what it was always meant to be. God, it’d be so gorgeous. I want him to hunt down more legacies, damnit!! Build a network, create a MoL chapter that can do things the way things were always meant to be done.
Come on, Sammy!
5. Billie and the Cosmics
Cosmic consequences, cosmic fate and something else cosmic, or several other things cosmic this season. The word “cosmic” has come up on more than one occasion and, usually, it seems linked to Billie. Well, the cosmic fate was linked to the love spell, which is linked to Rowena, and now Rowena and Billie have been in the same room.
Anyway.
What if it isn’t Michael. What if Lucifer and AU!Michael’s tampering with the fabric of the universe causes rifts to open and something truly, truly bad to come through, the way that was foreshadowed in 13x17? But then again, what exactly did Billie mean when she told Dean “See you again soon”?
I have no fucking clue. GAH. 
6. The Greatest Love Story Ever Told
I’m not expecting any payout in the finale on all the foreshadowing and plants they’ve given us throughout the season, let me make that perfectly clears, my dears.
But here’s the thing.
They are separating these men again. We know they are. They’ve told us this is happening. Dean is going to not be Dean and, looking at where we’re at narratively, it’s going to leave Cas pretty much as devastated as it left Dean, with the exception that Cas will not deal with dead!Dean, he’ll deal with possessed!Dean.
Well, presumably anyway.
See, I wouldn’t even consider this if it weren’t for Dean’s position in his progression, which was made clear to us in the promo for 13x23 by how he wants a future for himself, how he’s come so far as to plan what he’d do with it, if they could actually change things and get rid of all the bad in the world through Jack.
Which I doubt they will. Because that’s Utopia. And I don’t think Jack is here to bring that type of balance. But he WILL bring back the balance of the first seasons. At least how I see it. The monsters deserve a chance too. I don’t think you can just eradicate whole species and think this promotes balance. But working together, working proactively - yeah, that’d work. And having teams of hunters working together with MoL chapters would also mean that some people could take a vacation and know that everything’s under fucking control. It’s not all on them all the time.
So, point —>
Dean sees a future for himself. He’s in a position where I can actually, emotionally, see him think “fuck this”, and kissing Cas, because what Dean’s needed, more than anything, is to believe himself worthy of Cas’ love and affections, and Dean is pretty much there now, or so the promo says. 
And, the thing is, Cas is in a place where he more or less needs emotional intervention. Because he’s in Heavenly soldier default angel mode and he’s not drinking the beers and he’s not a part of the trio the way he should be. Because he’s removed from them, even after everything, and he is allowing himself to be, not understanding how to break through. 
We’ve kept being shown him frowning at Dean’s innuendo. The only innuendo we’ve gotten from Cas is that “epically” and even that could’ve been meant as something innocent enough. Cas isn’t quite there to make the move himself. But Dean…
Yeah, it would be intriguing af if they give us a kiss or even more this episode, because it pushes the shift in dynamics to the forefront and lets the GA know what’s what. It also gives a fresh tinge to the separation, because they’ll be struggling to get back to each other from two sides. They’ll be lovers pointedly wanting to reunite. It’ll be new to watch and will lend completely new subtext and it would be so gorgeous. 
If they have them come together in a passionate tangle of limbs without actually resolving anything between them before Dean says yes/is possessed/whatever he’s about to do/is about to happen to him, then we get the love story smacked in the face of the GA, while the tension remains because there’s still been no actual declarations (and you know you gotta have those)…
But yeah. If they’re going for another five seasons I’m not sure. Might be I’ll end up having to film myself eating an over-priced and highly delectable hat here, people. :P
I do not expect Destiel to become text in the finale. It just makes a tiny speck of sense that it could. Either way, there’s been a hella lot of fun subtext to read into this season! *aw yiss*
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shemakesmusic-uk · 3 years
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INTERVIEW: Douglas.
Ashes is the electrifying solo debut album that’s out today from Douglas, the new solo experimental, shoegaze/electronica project from Amy Douglas White, a veteran LA-based singer, songwriter and musician. Previously best known for contributing background vocals on M83's seminal album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming and performing alongside Mariqueen Maandig Reznor in West Indian Girl, Ashes brims with emotionally explosive, cinematic vignettes, melding together sadness and joy through the lens of ethereal electronica, with Douglas’ own versatile and expressive vocals always a throughline. Dense with pulsing rhythms and celestial layers of vocals, Douglas’s ambient pop is a hybrid of genres, rooted in melodic hooks, and yet rich with abstraction.
To mark its release, Douglas is sharing a compelling short film set to the album track 'Alter Ego'. Among the most cinematic tracks on Ashes, 'Alter Ego' features an alluring slow burn of Rhodes keyboard and Roland JX-3P synths set to ignite. The accompanying video burrows deep into the unspoken emotions evoked by the instrumental, depicting a poignant vignette in a boy’s adolescent life. In the short film, starring young actor Daniel Hoffman, a boy ventures out from his troubled household one evening and stumbles upon his older brother’s secret sexuality, evoking the song’s theme of hidden identity.
Shot on 35mm film by acclaimed filmmaker Jac Cron who creates films centered around human connection, particularly within the LGBTQIA+ community, she was struck by the song’s cinematic resonance and inspired to create the video that tells a fictional (but all-too-real) story about how identity, acceptance, societal pressure and vulnerability affect members of their community.
We were lucky enough to sit down with Amy and have a chat about the new album, the kind of music she's listening to at the moment, what she enjoys doing outside of music and more. Read the interview below.
Hi Amy! How are you? How have you been affected by the pandemic?
"I’m doing well!  It’s been really exciting to finally get my music out into the world.  Fortunately, my family has not been adversely affected by the pandemic, as my partner has had steady work, and I was able to stay home with my son for the first 6 months until he started preschool.  We also haven’t had the misfortune of suffering the loss of a personal loved one.  That’s not to say that anxiety and stress did not amount to crazy levels throughout the year, but my partner and I are both pragmatic people and can handle a crisis pretty well.  The challenge now will be learning to adjust and move beyond surviving to thriving."
You've just released your debut album Ashes. Please tell us what the record is about/was inspired by and what it means to you.
"I have been playing in bands and working in the industry for over 20 years.  From time to time I would write music and experiment with sounds in my studio, slowly growing my arsenal with more music gear and constant practice. I love creating and collaborating with people, as I always learn new things and get to expand my musical palette.  But it wasn’t until I experienced a devastating loss that I felt this overwhelming drive to focus my creative energy into a project that was solely my own. In 2016, I was forced to terminate a pregnancy at seven months, and six months later I became pregnant with my son. The pregnancy became a source of both hope and creative motivation while giving me a natural deadline to complete the album. Writing and producing these songs became a cathartic release, an incredibly powerful and healing tool that I needed in order to move forward."
You wrote and produced the LP yourself with a few instrumental contributions from trusted collaborators. What was the creative process like? How important was it to you to have total control?
"It was amazing and sometimes scary at the same time.  I’ve always collaborated with someone in the past, so I was used to bouncing ideas off of them until we were all happy.  With Ashes, I loved being able to create a sound in its full form without having to compromise.  It was fun to take my time and really chisel away at the sonic landscape of each track.  Not having a lot of experience producing drum tracks, however, made me nervous, as I didn’t want the album to suffer from my lack of experience. But even that aspect was enjoyable once I figured out what I was doing.  It’s not a perfectly produced album, but that was never my intention. I wanted to make something honest, something that I felt deep within myself.  Keeping that vision in mind, I was able to overcome these challenges and feelings of insecurity, which made this experience truly powerful and most fulfilling."
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What was your favourite part in creating Ashes? And were there any parts you found particularly challenging?  
"My favorite part was diving into the music without any expectations other than to create something truthful. I did my best to extrapolate sounds and ideas I heard in my head, but a lot of the production and writing came from improvisation and just playing around with my keyboards.  Producing Ashes was my first time editing live drums (played by Kris Persson), and it felt like I was shooting blindly at first; stacking and chopping rhythms in random ways until I found something I liked.  Lyric writing can be hard for me too, but once something feels right, there’s no greater satisfaction than a lyric that makes you cry when you sing it.  I had many moments in my studio where I would play a line on a keyboard that would give me chills, or I would get up to sing a vocal and tears would stream down my face.  Those moments of being lost (or present) in the music are what it’s all about.
"The most challenging part was probably juggling the mixing of the album while becoming a new mom. I was literally exchanging mix notes for ‘Clouds’ with my mixing engineer, Patrick Doyle, while in labor at the hospital. The album was so important to me, though, that I would make time to listen to the new mixes whenever I could (which usually meant on 2 hours of sleep and with cheap headphones).  But Patrick was amazing.  He was so patient, professional, and an absolute joy to work with.  He made Ashes come to life; I’m forever indebted to him."
What do you hope fans will take away from Ashes?  
"Music makes me feel things I can’t always express with words. If I can have that same affect on someone I think I’ve succeeded."
Which new artists/bands are you listening to right now? Is there anyone else you would love to collaborate with in the future?
"I’m always listening to a variety of artists, but lately I’ve been really into Denis Sulta’s new tracks, as well as Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross’ “Watchmen” soundtrack.  Also, Billie Eilish, Tame Impala, Caribou’s “Suddenly, and Fiona Apple’s “Fetch The Bolt Cutters.” I have a jazz playlist that I put on almost every night around dinner, with Thelonious Monk being one of my most played and favorite artists. It would be a dream to work with any of these!  Kevin Parker from Tame Impala, Weyes Blood, Mark Ronson, Little Dragon, Morgan Kibby, Ulrich Schnauss, Jonny Greenwood, Disclosure, Sigur Rós, Burial, Cliff Martinez. I could go on and on…"
If there was one thing you could change about the music world today, what would it be?
"Wow, that’s a tough question.  It would probably be the sexism that’s so deeply embedded in the music industry culture.  I know that sexism is pretty ubiquitous, but this industry seems particularly old-fashioned and slow to move forward with change."
Based on your musical journey so far, what’s been your biggest takeaway/piece of advice?
"You have to love making music.  It can be tough and take a really long time, but if you ultimately enjoy the process of creating music you will find peace and fulfillment.  It’s helped me to have a set schedule where I go to my studio every day to either play, write or improvise with sounds or gear. You don’t have to make magic, but if you make time for practice you get to flex those muscles that may lead to magic. Also, say yes to as many different musical experiences that may come your way."
What are you passionate about outside of music?
"I’m an avid gardener and I volunteer for the LA County Master Gardener program.  I’m obsessed with sustainability and being able to grow your own food.  This ties into my other love, which is baking and cooking.  From a young age my friends have always tried to convince me to open a baking business.  Maybe some day that will happen, but for now I’m happy to zen out in my little kitchen and bake for my family (and friends, once we can safely see each other again)."
Finally, what's next for you? I expect you're wanting to get back to touring as soon as it's safe to do so? What are you missing most about performing live?
"I’m excited to release a remix EP in the summer to follow up the album release of Ashes!  I’m also working on an experimental/ambient EP. I miss performing live so much; the energy you get from the audience is unlike anything else. I’ve never played a live show where I was the front-woman, but I think it’s an important experience I need to have."
youtube
Ashes is out now.
Photo credit: Alexander Brown
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aion-rsa · 3 years
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Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide
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This article contains WandaVision spoilers through episode 5, possibly beyond, and for the wider MCU.
WandaVision episode 5, “On a Very Special Episode…” took everything we liked about the first two episodes and shook them up. For the first time, we have a fully blended approach to the storytelling, with the episode alternating between the altered “sitcom” reality of Westview, NJ and the actual, current MCU events. And then there’s that multiverse-shattering ending to contend with.
There’s a lot to break down with this week’s WandaVision, so we’d better get to it…
Sitcom Influences
WandaVision took us to the ‘80s this week, with a little Growing Pains, some Family Ties, and maybe a hint of Full House thrown in for good measure. The living room set itself looks very much like the standard seen on shows of the era, specifically Family Ties and Growing Pains.
Family Ties
The aging up of Billy and Tommy is much like Andy Keaton from Family Ties. In season 4, Andy was born and spent the whole season as a baby. As of the beginning of season 5, Andy was suddenly about 5 years old with zero explanation.
Also from Family Ties is the beginning of the opening credits, where it would show someone painting a colorless sketch of the family.
Bettany’s Michael Gross impression was extremely disturbing in how good it was a couple of times.
Growing Pains
Wanda and Vision getting vaguely horny for each other while doing regular domestic stuff is reminiscent of the way the parents would occasionally get it on on Growing Pains and Family Ties.
The sitcom theme lyrics and feel are extremely Growing Pains. And yes, as you might expect, they are very appropriate for these characters.
Here are the full lyrics for you (courtesy of the Disney+ closed caption feature):
“You wander the world with a vision…Of what life could be But then the years come and teach you…To just wait and see Forces may try to pull us apart…But nothing can phase me If you’re in my heart Crossing our fingers Singing a song We’re making it up as we go along Through the highs and lows We’ll be right, we’ll be wrong We’re making it up as we go along And there will be days…We won’t know which way to go But we’ll take it higher…You’re all I desire When the going gets tough…When push comes to shove We’re making it up Cuz we got love we got love we got love We got WandaVision”
Darcy also refers to Vision “playing Father Knows Best,” a callback to the sitcom style of the first episode.
We wrote in more detail about the sitcom influences of WandaVision episode 5 here.
Scarlet Witch
For the first time, we get the names of Wanda’s parents: Irina and Oleg Maximoff, but in the comics they were known as Django and Marya.
Wanda was born in 1989, the same year as Elizabeth Olsen.
We learn here that the “Scarlet Witch” codename has never been used in the MCU
Darcy refers to the anomaly as “the hex” after the hexagonal patterns that were noted in the previous episode. In the comics, Wanda’s powers are often referred to as “hex bolts.” She could also produce “hex spheres” and the town seems to be enveloped in a large one here.
Wanda’s accent, missing since Avengers: Age of Ultron, makes its triumphant return here.
Wanda talking to the kids about how “my brother is far away from here” is technically true: his corpse is…nowhere nearby. Although given how the episode ends, she could very well have been referring to another corner of the multiverse. We’ll get to that soon enough.
SWORD seems to refer to what’s going on as “The Maximoff Anomaly.”
Vision
We now know that Vision’s corpse is physically present in Westview and he isn’t just a manifestation of Wanda’s powers, nor was the horrific image of him glimpsed at the end of episode 3 a hallucination: it was Wanda seeing him as he really is.
Vision is working on a Commodore 64 at Computational Services. This early personal computer was a terrific gaming machine, with graphics and sound that were far better than early home gaming consoles of the era.
Vision apparently had a “living will” about what he didn’t want done with his body in the event of his untimely demise. Think of it like the MCU equivalent of a DNR. No, not a “do not reveal.” The other thing.
House of M
Before Agnes shows up the second time around, Vision is reading a newspaper with the headline, “LOCAL HOMEMAKERS INNOVATING RECIPES.” Moments later, he folds the newspaper in a way so that it only says “HOM.” HOM is short for the big Scarlet Witch comic event House of M.
The Twins
While it’s used as a setup for the twins inexplicably growing up, Wanda and Vision are horrified to find that the babies have simply vanished. In the comics, the first time we really get an idea that something is wrong with the children (as well as Wanda’s mental wellbeing) is when they show us that Billy and Tommy would cease to exist when Wanda wasn’t around.
This episode is the first to really feel like it’s borrowing a lot from Wanda’s most important story: the Dark Scarlet Witch story from Avengers West Coast. In that book, the first clue that something was wrong with Wanda was how the twins would disappear when she wasn’t looking a them. This would often happen when Agatha Harkness (presumably Agnes here) was babysitting for them. And later, Wanda’s personality started to shift towards full villainy and she was very cavalier about the use of her powers, something we start to see in this episode. 
For most of the episode, the twins are dressed in red and green. This more than a nod to their parents’ favored color schemes, but it appears to mirror the colors they adopt when they grow up to be superheroes themselves. William becomes the hex-wielding Wiccan, who favors red, while Tommy favors green (like his Uncle Pietro) as Speed.
Sparky
Poor Sparky. Good boy.
The name “Sparky” is a reference to Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s brilliant Vision story, in which Vision and his “family” (not the Maximoffs) move to the suburbs and try to live a “normal” life. Part of that includes a synthezoid canine named “Sparky.” He didn’t meet a good end there, either. Stop letting dogs die in our stories, you monsters! It’s too sad.
Lagos
This week’s commercial is for Lagos Brand Paper Towels, with the catchy slogan of:  “For when you make a mess you didn’t mean to.”
This references the opening scenes of Captain America: Civil War, when Wanda used her powers to stop Crossbones from detonating a bomb in a crowded marketplace. While she reduced the number of casualties overall, a number of innocent civilians still died when he exploded. It’s the first indication that Wanda’s grief and trauma in Westview are driven by far more than just the loss of her lover.
The Lagos ad is also another reference to the Infinity Stones. Previously, we’ve had the toaster (Power), the watch (Time) and the Tesseract-shaped bath powder (Space). Here, we have a red liquid spill in a sly nod to the Aether (Reality). Only the Mind and Soul stones to go – which means two more commercials.
X-Men
These are definitely not the only X-Men references in the episode (of course), but we’ll get to that big one down below…
The scene of Wanda confronting SWORD agents looks to be directly inspired by the scene in the first X-Men movie where the police try to take down Magneto. Much like Wanda, he uses his powers on their guns, causing them to be aimed at the cops themselves before escaping. Considering the payoff to this episode and Magneto’s role as Wanda and Pietro’s sometimes-father in the comics (not to mention Pietro’s definite father in the X-Men movies), this was more than likely set up. 
Vision says he was reading Charles Darwin’s “The Descent of Man” to one of the twins, a book that deals with evolution. (David Bowie voice) “Gotta make way for the homo superior!”
The Twilight Zone
Serious Twilight Zone “It’s a Good Life” vibes in the episode throughout, particularly when Agnes is visibly weirded out by Wanda with her “take it from the top” moment (unless she’s deliberately screwing with everyone), and the mailman telling the twins “your mom won’t let [Sparky] get far.”
Also, while we’re on the subject of The Twilight Zone, Agnes appears to live at the corner of Maple St. and Sherwood Drive. “The Monsters are due on Maple Street” is a notoriously paranoid unpacking of suburban paranoia.
Westview
The opening credits feature a “Greetings From Westview, NJ” postcard in a pretty common format, but one made most famous on the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Greetings From Asbury Park” album.
We wrote more about Westview in general here.
“For the Children
Vision points out that there are “no other children in Westview,” which calls to mind the creepy “for the children” chant from back in episode 2. 
Captain Marvel
Darcy draws the connection between how both Wanda and Carol Danvers got their powers via an Infinity Stone. Similarly, they acknowledge Wanda almost took out Thanos in Avengers: Endgame but that this feels outside the scope of her powers. Still, the fact that both Wanda and Carol stood up to Thanos isn’t something that’s being glossed over in the MCU.
Note Monica’s reaction when the name “Captain Marvel” is said isn’t exactly what you’d call enthusiastic.
Monica Rambeau
Monica’s test results coming back blank seem pretty significant. Is this a signifier that her molecular structure has changed, whether from the blip or passing through the hex barrier? Are we witnessing Monica’s superheroic origin story in slow motion?
Who is the Villain of WandaVision, anyway?
Despite the implications from the end of episode 4, Wanda isn’t completely in control of what’s going on. At various points in the episode she seems to be manipulating everything, but at others seems to be completely immersed in this reality. 
But if she doesn’t remember how this all started, that sets up a potential villain reveal (or more than one) down the road.
What’s up with Agnes?
Agnes is complicit but was disturbed by Wanda’s ability to “resurrect” so how much can she really know? Unless, of course, she’s just “acting” this way to continue with her cover.
On the other hand, Agnes “helping out with the kids” is kind of in line with our Agatha Harkness theory for the character.
Reed Richards?
Monica mentions that she has a particular “aerospace engineer” in mind to call for help. Based on all the other subtle Fantastic Four clues that were in the fourth episode, could this individual be Reed Richards?
If they aren’t taking that big a swing, it could be Adam Bernard Brashear, known as “The Blue Marvel,” another prominent Marvel scientist, and one who has led the 616 version of the Ultimates with Monica on the team.
Evan Peters is Pietro
“She recast Pietro?”
Yes, you are indeed seeing Evan Peters returning as Pietro Maximoff/Quicksilver here. This is (at least until it’s revealed that the MCU Wanda and Pietro were indeed mutants whose powers were merely “activated” by Strucker’s experiments) now officially the first appearance of a mutant/member of the X-Men in the MCU. Peters, of course, played Pietro in three films,X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, and Dark Phoenix. While Aaron Taylor-Johnson played Pietro in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Peters played him in Days of Future Past, and he was generally more warmly-received by fans.
And does this indeed mean that Pietro is alive again, albeit in “recast” form? Or is Wanda so powerful that she ripped open a hole in the multiverse itself in order for her brother to “make a guest appearance” in Westview? This could very well be the first indication of what’s to come in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and the possibly Spiderverse-y Spider-Man 3.
Unless…what if this isn’t Pietro at all? What if it’s someone manipulative merely taking the form of Pietro to mess with Wanda even further?
Also, Pietro’s “bad boy” appearance very much feels like it fits with the Family Ties aesthetic. His “New York tough guy” look and persona is much like Nick, Mallory’s idiot boyfriend.  Coincidentally, Nick also starred in an episode of the show where he got a dog and it died soon after from an accident.
We wrote much more about the shocking WandaVision episode 5 ending here.
We Are Kind of OK With the ’80s
Jazzercise was indeed a real thing, god help us.
For those of you thinking the internet was a whatever a reverse anachronism is, we made the same mistake too. But it turns out it has been around in some form since the 1960s, when the Advance Research Projects Agency (precursor to today’s US government mad science agency, DARPA) networked a few computers and sent messages back and forth. 
Unanswered Questions
Dennis the Mailman is back from episode 1. His little aside to the kids is an indicator that he is vaguely aware of what’s really going on. Not necessarily in a sinister way, but a reminder that the people of Westview aren’t really enjoying this.
One of the camera feeds we see is from Satellite 348. Avengers #348 had a Vision-centric cover and story.
Is there a significance to the stuffed animal on the chair at the beginning? I thought maybe it was a stuffed Bova or something, but I think it’s just a bunny.
cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });
Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!
The post Marvel’s WandaVision Episode 5: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.
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sinceileftyoublog · 5 years
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Eilen Jewell Interview: New Eyes and Her Eyes
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BY JORDAN MAINZER
“My daughter’s gonna come home soon and demand all of my attention,” Americana singer-songwriter Eilen Jewell told me over the phone from her home in Boise last month. Becoming a mother has done for her what it does for any new parent: It has made her busy, and more fearful for her and her child’s safety. But at the same time, it’s made Jewell more emotionally and musically adaptive and arguably less averse to risk. Gypsy, her first album of original material since 2015, (out August 16 via Signature Sounds), touches on these themes. For one, it sees her more willing to write directly about her life and interactions with the world. She exposes her own vulnerability on “Witness” and “Fear”. In the face of some awful “stick to politics” criticism, she decries the gender pay gap on “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” and inspires us to act about injustice on “Beat the Drum”. And for a slice of home cooking, she even covers Idaho musician Pinto Bennett, on “You Cared Enough to Lie”.
Instrumentally, too, Gypsy was “a learning experience” for Jewell, marking the first time she’s ever recorded with electric guitar. Live, this means more equipment and more musicians. She’s still got the core band: her husband Jason Beek on drums and guitarist Jerry Miller. This time around, she’s adding upright bass player Matt Murphy for the first time and percussionist/roadie Michael Rundle. (With Beek recovering from open heart surgery, Rundle has to do a lot of heavy lifting.) Add her daughter Mavis and a nanny, and you’ve got what Jewell called the “happy seven, rollin’ down the road.”
That Gypsy and its subsequent tour is somewhat of a family affair is appropriate: Jewell dedicates the record to a different family, one from her childhood that made possible the spirit of the album. Growing up with the cultural limitations of Boise, the Abramovitz family, parents and four kids, one of which was Jewell’s best friend, exposed her to new music and art. The father, from New York City, “was the most exotic person I could have ever imagined,” Jewell told me. “It was like he was from a different planet.” He turned her on to Greenwich Village beat poetry and Billie Holliday. It was “exactly what I needed at the time and still really cherish,” Jewell said. With Gypsy, she pays it forward, showing new territory by venturing out of her comfort zone.
Catch Jewell tomorrow night at Hey Nonny in Arlington Heights and Friday at FitzGerald’s in Berwyn. Read the interview below, edited for length and clarity.
Since I Left You: What is unique about Gypsy as compared to your past releases?
Eilen Jewell: Well, it’s my favorite album so far of all the albums I’ve written. I feel like the writing is more honest than it’s ever been, and there’s a depth to it that I think is something I’ve been trying to achieve for a long time.
SILY: What kind of depth do you think it achieves?
EJ: The songs are really personal to me. I think I’m writing truer stories than I used to. My songs used to be kind of a blend of fiction and fact. These songs are less fiction. Not that there’s anything wrong with fiction--I love that, too--but I’ve just been wanting to write more autobiographical songs and have always found that to be more challenging. I’ve shied away from it up until now because it was so challenging. This album, I really embraced the idea of looking at something personal and writing it in a way that makes me feel good about sharing it with the world.
SILY: Is there a song that best encapsulates that feeling?
EJ: They all do, but I think “Fear” is one of the better examples of that because I’ve been grappling with fear a lot ever since my little girl came along. I’m a much more frightened person than I used to be. “Who Else But You”, as well. And “Crawl”, too. “Crawl” doesn’t sound like a very confessional song, but it’s something that comes directly from something I’ve been feeling for a longtime and have finally found out a way to put into words. A lot of songs on the album are that way: Things I’ve been struggling to communicate for a long time. I’ve finally figured out how to do it somehow.
SILY: “Fear” and “Crawl” specifically have a couple of my favorite lines on the record. On the former: “Don’t take fear for your guide / Just look him in the eye and thank him kindly for his time.” Is that a mantra to yourself?
EJ: Sort of. I’ve been trying to figure out how to live peacefully with my fears and anxieties. I feel like they’ve taught me a lot. Ever since Mavis came along, I’ve been much more of a fearful person. There are days when I want to shove all the fear away and hide it under a rug. Those days are less productive. What’s really helped me over the years is to accept fear and live next to him and accept that’s part of life. But don’t let it guide everything that you do. Don’t let it become the motivating factor for doing or not doing whatever it is you want to do in your life. It’s become something to live by, for sure.
SILY: Why do you refer to fear as “him?”
EJ: [laughs] I feel like fear is the dark stranger you meet on the road at night. For me, it’s a very masculine feeling. It’s the creeper who lives in the shadows...that tends to be a male presence. The criminal, the thief, the person who wants to take everything away from you that you love and cherish. Sorry to say.
SILY: It fits thematically with other songs where you more explicitly lament the patriarchy, like “79 Cents (The Meow Song)” and “Beat the Drum”.
EJ: Even though “Fear” is an extremely personal song for me about grappling with the newfound anxiety of becoming a mother, politically, there’s a lot of fear on both sides. Both the right and the left are very fear-driven at the moment. It does have political ramifications, as well. As I was writing it, I was thinking about all of the fear-mongering going on that’s more than I’ve ever seen in my lifetime. If people want to take it as a political message, I think that’s fair game.
SILY: Like “Fear”, “Witness” is also about how having a kid has changed you, right?
EJ: Yeah, I mean when I was writing it, I wasn’t directly feeling like it was a song about new motherhood. But [Mavis] has changed the way I see the world. You could say that, more or less, it’s about learning how to see life through new eyes and how it can change your perspective so deeply.
SILY: Has it made you a more empathetic songwriter and person?
EJ: Yeah, definitely. I think that’s probably one of the biggest things that motherhood as taught me: how to empathize, at least a little, with everyone. I feel much more tenderhearted with the world than I thought possible.
SILY: On “Crawl”, you sing, “I want solitude / I don’t want to be alone.” What’s the difference to you?
EJ: The song really examines this feeling in me of being pulled in two different directions at the same time. It’s something I’ve felt off and on throughout my entire life, as far as I can remember. I want the ruby-sanctified life and the unholy life. I want to be a pure and clean person, and I want to live life cowgirl style. I’ve constantly been pulled in these different directions. I’m very introverted, yet I fear being abandoned. There are these very conflicting forces at work in me, and there always have been. It’s another thing I’ve just recently come to terms with. “Yep--this is how I work!” I’m being fought over by opposite forces.
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SILY: This album is the first time you’ve recorded using electric guitar. Do you have a favorite guitar track?
EJ: I really like how the guitar came across on “Crawl”. It’s so unlike everything I’ve ever done before, on stage and in the studio. I’ve never done anything quite that musically aggressive before. I know it’s not cutting-edge guitar work, but for me, it’s different, and I’m happy about this process of coming out of my shell, covering ground that’s new for me.
SILY: How did you come up with the title and title track? Was there one that came first?
EJ: The song came first. When we were thinking about what to name the album, that was the only thing I kept returning to as a good name for the album. It’s a little bit hard to explain what the word “gypsy” means to me, but from a really long age, I’ve always been infatuated with the idea of gypsies. My friend, whose family I dedicated the album to, she and I used to have this infatuation with gypsies. We secretly wanted to be them. We both ended up growing up and choosing path in our lives that allowed us to be gypsies without obviously being technically gypsies. It’s a word that’s always been chock full of imagery for me. I wanted to give a nod to her and her family as being really important to me in terms of life in general and creativity. They exposed me to so much music, poetry, ideas, and thoughts growing up. I just couldn’t imagine growing up in Boise, Idaho, that there were people who thought outside the box to the extent they did. They took me in at a young age and opened my mind. Somehow, the word gypsy involves all those elements of my life: them, poetry, creativity, and not staying tied down to one belief or system or way of being. Having a sense of freedom.
SILY: Was that an accurate interpretation of Boise at the time? How much has it changed from an artistic standpoint?
EJ: It’s much more interesting now than it was growing up. In the 80′s and 90′s, there was very little outside influence, almost no diversity. It’s very isolated and still is. It’s the most isolated metropolitan area in the U.S. You have to drive 5 hours to get to the next big city. It still feels isolated but feels a lot bigger. It has big city issues, but it feels more diverse now. As a kid, it felt like growing up in a desert. [laughs] If it weren’t for the Abramovitz family I dedicated the album to, I don’t think I would have heard a lot of the music that’s really important to me today and certainly feel like I wouldn’t have had any companionship in my weird musical tastes.
SILY: How are you adapting the new songs to the stage?
EJ: We’re working through that. We’ve started bringing an amp for me on the road, and two electric guitars. The van is even fuller than it used to be, but mostly in a good way.
Album score: 8.0/10
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Part 1Hi :) I'm very confused by Death. If he used to be kept in a prison far under ground, how did everything keep dying? Because in 6x11 it was implied that he had to physically touch a person to kill them. Or was that just a symbolic sort of thing he had Dean do? If so, what would be the point in imprisoning him in the first place, if it didn't take away his power? Also, he acts like he doesn't really need his ring, whereas the other horsemen rely on theirs for everything?
Part 2 Lastly, before he gives Dean his ring he tells him Lucifer has him bound and is making him destroy Chicago, but then he gives Dean his ring and tells him Chicago can stay? I thought he didn’t have a choice. Or is it that when he gave over the ring, he surrendered his power that would’ve been used to destroy Chicago? If so, they make it look like the ring is powerful in that episode, but in other episodes it’s like the ring’s nothing more than part of a key to open Lucifer’s cage. Help…
Hey there! Wow, we’re going deep today, huh? :)
First off I do want to say that I think on a storytelling level a lot of this is going to fall under the same category as this:
https://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/116290651059/kim-manners-often-jokes-that-the-ghost-rules-are
https://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/127733752414/so-was-the-ghost-car-really-the-ghost-of-a-car
The “ghost rules” is a good short hand comment I have in my own head to explain anything the story is kind of wobbly about when it comes to power levels/reapers randomly turning visible and operating on our plane of existence/demons being strong one day and weedy enough that Ben Braeden can take them down single handed with just salt rounds without them getting up again the next… Things where the storytelling for good or bad bends the lore to the needs of the story. So some of these are minor continuity quibbles that you have to put together in certain ways and kind of construct a meaning where I think largely the crew wanted you to not think too hard about it.
Obviously the process of death was going on since Death was locked away for centuries, and reapers did all the work shuttling people back and forth unguided, just serving their purpose. And since Death has been killed, things continue on that way, although there was a bit of concerned spec that death would just stop happening for a bit (one spec I remember was that Cas and Crowley were ‘supposed’ to die of being stabbed & the attack dog spell, but then didn’t because there was no one to reap them, although the speculator I think was pretty blurry on the details of what would happen next and I don’t really remember… 2 years ago. Yikes.)
If I had to guess about the nature of dying in this world they’ve created and make a theory (definitely only a theory and all my own thoughts based on my own musings on this subject in the show and a lot in my own worlds and other stories) to string it all together, is that “death” is a natural process that “Death” personifies, but doesn’t need to actually be a personified version of for it to keep happening… Whatever power he had as a controlled entity was, I guess, dispersed when he was killed, and the consciousness of the whole thing is over - some sort of chaos and maybe even untamable nature with no personification to harness it, that death just *happens* now. Billie’s threat of throwing them into the empty is not directly connected with this state but metaphorically makes the post-Death part of the show one where the state of death is final, absolute and once again random, chilling and cruel, rather than something one bounces back from. I think though it’s got no actual link to the metaphysical side of things with how death is happening it sort of paints a picture of it as a arbitrary force… 11x17 with them dying in all these pointless ways, just a random gut shot on a hunt or Dean OD’ing to talk to Billie, was really heavy on death just happening unpredictably and scarily to them and very much out of their control. 
I think even when Death was caged up this force was still present in the world that things would end and move on and he was merely the personification of it - something that sort of came into being from the power of this transition, something to oversee and arbitrate on the concept’s behalf. Billie as a reaper is only a psychopomp who moves the souls to their place so has no power to arbitrate and decide for them, though she makes deals and in season 12 really starts exceeding her reach by bringing them back to life in 12x09 and so on, I think she was starting to flex the powers Death had, which was to speak on behalf of the concept of dying, as SOMEONE needs to take over to help with who lives and dies, and Billie had very strong opinions on that (I think all reapers do), so she was using powers reapers didn’t canonically have, in 12x09, but Death did. I suppose if his power is free and unchained in the world now, reapers would be the species best suited to start harnessing it for themselves and like Heaven without God, or demons without a leader (like Abaddon collecting souls for herself in jars in basements rather than letting them go to Hell where she wasn’t directly owning them to recruit demons), there’s a sort of self-determination going on which is a strong theme of the show… To take the power into their hands for themselves that was once reserved for the huge personalities who ran everything. Very anarchic :P
Anyway in 6x11 Death is alive, well, free and has the ring which seems to be the symbol harnessing this power (just as the others had rings which harnessed lesser, human awfulness we create ourselves, and I bet if you knew how you could make rings to harness any sort of awfulness and become a “Horseman” of some human issue… Though, again, they seem to be personalities specifically conjured by cosmic pressure to control these things the fact there are rings in the first place suggests some sort of… deliberate creation and human connection… idk it’s anachronistic if Death is a concept from the dawn of time that needs a very human looking crafted ring to do anything with his power… I sort of feel like if they were previously existing, the force of human personalities and power made them swarm like flies to this planet and grow in strength and manifest/create these rings or… something? Not my worldbuilding but I’ve had to think a LOT about similar creatures for my world building, though representing POSITIVE human things like the concepts of justice, magic, etc, and my Deaths are quite positive characters blending in with that rather than ever seeming villainous. Wow, detour. Sorry.) 
ANYWAY so I think 6x11 has Dean very deliberately put in Death’s place for the sake of his learning experience, and that means the rules are much stricter and specific. I think Dean is in no way powerful enough to contain the entire concept of death and all the power to move the moon, but the ring, with permission, and probably a very carefully crafted list of people to visit, allows him to act like Death… Death didn’t personally show up to them before 9x01, or at least, show his face when doing it, and in fact in 9x01 he’s doing the opposite of Billie - he acts more like the reaper in 7x10 or Tessa in 2x01, talking to Sam about passing on and I think would have escorted him as a reaper… He is described as the “big daddy reaper” at one point so it’s not weird he has those powers too :P But anyway I think in 6x11 it was very deliberately staged that the ring gave Dean the choice and means to wield that power just in a very small way of being the one to decide when their lives ended, while I think in Death’s hand as the much more powerful being even WITHOUT it, just by nature, it becomes such a formidable thing it can destroy cities and move the moon and whatever else. 
I think the ring was destroyed in 10x23 but it did make me wonder that without it Death was more along the lines of a fairly standard reaper but just the oldest one who had crafted/created the ring to harness these greater cosmic powers. He killed the bloke in 5x21 so I do wonder about the message in 6x11 about cosmic consequences since Dean created a lot and sure it was the apocalypse and all but it’s quite clear that Death can fuck up on that scale if Dean can :P I think the whole moving the moon thing is a pretty consequential thing…. Just sayin’. The whole cosmic consequences thing now ties pretty directly back to the message of 6x11. I think if Death has the power to create or control those consequences then I would say post-10x23 again the world is much more lawless when it comes to the natural order, which might be another reason why Billie was so nervous of the Winchesters continuing to defy it. I wonder how season 11 would have shaken out with Death around and I wonder if the “cosmic consequences” can run back as far as that choice as well.
(For example, Dean would have summoned Death immediately to ask him to reap Amara, in a situation unlike 7x01 where Death didn’t think Cas was worth the challenge, vs what he said in 5x21 about reaping actual God one day, of which Amara was absolutely on a level so obviously if Death wasn’t dead, would have been the obvious person to ask for the same reason it occurred to Dean in 7x01… and as the most powerful chess piece on the board, with him gone, they turn to desperate measures like going to chat to Lucifer, which of course is still creating problems now >.>)
Anyway since Billie didn’t feel like elaborating on anything, I sort of doubt we’ll hear too much in depth about this again from the POV of reapers or Death but this is my theory about how that power all works… Again, from the POV of someone who writes cosmic entities all the time for fun :P
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hellsbells91 · 7 years
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Black Sails 4.09 Watch Notes
Whew, well now *takes breath*. Black Sails wields tragedy like Flint does his sword - unrelenting and with little mercy xD
That being said this episode on the surface felt a little anti-climactic, I won’t dodge any criticism there - especially when you compare it to season 3 the story here feels a little constricted, in the way that the focus now is on tying everything up to Treasure Island, the war almost takes a back seat. The more I let everything sink in though, because BS really knows how to send me into a state of shocked incomprehension, the more perfect everything gets.
A moment\s silence for all the characters who did not make it out of this episode alive. I mean it’s logical to think that no one can make it out alive to divulge the location of the treasure and of Skeleton Island, but it still hurts.
Anyway on to the rest:
“Your opponent’s wrist is from whence the attack is born. It is its past tense, from which it cannot separate itself. The end of the blade, where the attack arrives, is it’s present tense, which also cannot be denied.”
“All warfare is the same. In it there are two questions are of paramount importance. Who was my opponent yesterday and who is he today.”
Flint’s words pretty much sum up some of the show’s main themes don’t they? At least in terms of characters and their motivations - everyone is tied to their past somehow, everyone has a story, perhaps none more so than Flint. To have offered freely the information of his past to Silver in s3, information that he states here is key to knowing your opponent, showed a great deal of trust. And it leads Flint into questioning Silver - a man who has worked hard to separate himself from his past - where he came from, and it also leads to in my opinion some of the most moving material in the show as this episode brilliantly cuts between the present and a series of sparring sessions between Flint and Silver.
The flashback scenes with Silver and Flint showcase Black Sails at its best, away from the guns and the battles (though those are awesome too!!) to focus on the complex relationships forged between the characters. To see Flint and Silver alone together and not having play to their personas or put up a front is a rare gem, the gentle soundtrack to these scenes heightens their intimacy, and along with the jokes and easy smiles we get a sense of true friendship and peace that is ever so upsetting because unlike Flint and Silver in that moment we’re burdened with the knowledge of what’s going on in the present.
Silver’s leg is a huge point of insecurity for him, and we’ve grown used to seeing him act brave for the crew’s sake, as if he’s not tired or in pain - going so far as to actively reject help. He often hides the injury from them, and even now he talks about how the men must view him. But in front of Flint, he abandons the metal leg without a thought:
“But for pride to be an issue between you and I, I think we’re plain past that by now.”
You said it John ;)
When Flint first asks Silver the truth of his past though, Silver is suddenly quick to brush him off, and flippantly tells another story to try and dodge the truth. But when Flint pushes him, we see a sudden change in Silver. Through a combined expression of sadness and fear, John’s mask slips, he gets this faraway look in his eyes and once again I am ACHING to know what happened to him. Flint is probably the first person to take actual interest in John’s history, and caught off guard it seems like John’s first instinct is to run away from probing questions as he simply tells Flint that it’s not important and leaves.
Silver’s past is obviously something that must have been quite traumatic (he says he can’t bear it to be known), but it’s something that Silver has chalked up to “shit happens” basically and has since decided that he doesn’t need ‘a story’ to try and make sense of himself, and has completely cut himself off from who he was. It seems as if whatever did happen to Silver growing up, Silver has become so used to being uncared for that somewhere he began to believe that that’s just how things are, that’s how the world is. So he cares for no one, and lives in service of himself only. He says his past is of no consequence but it’s also undoubtably shaped who he is. We don’t learn of Silver’s tragic backstory, but it is tragic nonetheless. Perhaps even more so when you consider that the rest of John’s life is now to be dictated by a story and a legend that was made up about him by someone else without his permission.
The editing during Flint and Silver’s final confrontation is so clever and beautiful that I’m just gonna stop to fangirl for a moment. I absolutely adore the way we cut between their verbal argument and the sparring, comparing once again the connection between the past and the present. Attack and counter-attack, juxtaposing one fight in which they are friends with another in which they are enemies, all building up to the moment in which Silver catches up to (and potentially surpasses) Flint. The whole thing together is like a metaphor for their relationship, Silver doesn’t quite surpass Flint, the fight is interrupted before that moment, but at the end they stand truly as equals, beautifully rounded off by Silver’s conversation with Madi in which he states that he has earned Flint’s respect and so he shall do the same for Flint.
Just like the wrist and the edge of the blade, if Flint is the past then Silver is the present, and we see this connection not only through Flint and Silver themselves but also how the characters around them see it. One man asks John if Flint would have gone left or right, assuming that their minds are so closely linked that John would know (this scene was hilarious I loved it). Rogers asks Billy who does he think will prevail and Billy can’t answer, only stating that Rogers should make a move first. Silver knowingly sends men to their deaths and Israel Hands muses over how alike he and Flint have grown - the wording specifically on having learnt from Flint is so fitting considering the flashbacks are of Flint teaching Silver how to fight. Watching other characters offer to kill the other for them is also satisfying to see because Dooley and Hands both consider that Flint and Silver wouldn’t be able to kill each other if it came to it, and the two in question immediately reject the offer.  The instant Dooley suggests that John may have to die brings a flash of horror to Flint’s face. It’s surely something that Flint must have factored in at some point, and yet, to have it said aloud, to have it confirmed as a very real possibility, Flint cannot bear the idea. And then when the moment arrives Flint shoots Dooley dead without a thought, which if anything only reveals to Silver that Flint cannot kill him.
This is all just a testament to how entangled Flint and Silver are with each other, and dammit if I don’t love it because this here is the core of the show.
Stepping back from Flint and Silver for a moment, the scene with Rogers and Madi is just wonderfully horrifying, and we’re reminded again how little Rogers must have known of Eleanor if he imagines her knitting. Once again I love the editing here keeps the clicking of the needles at the forefront whilst keeping Eleanor herself out of focus, in shadow or not even in the shot at all. It’s really creepy. And Rogers saying Eleanor’s death is the pirates’ fault? Fuck you.
The difference between Madi and Silver’s beliefs however is becoming apparent again. When Silver asked her not long ago if he was enough for her, Madi didn’t answer, now here we have two episodes in the first of which John declares he will choose Madi over the war, and in the second Madi says she would choose the war. I’m not saying she’s wrong, ‘course not, Madi has always been in this for much larger reasons - despite loving Silver, she cannot forget generations of brutality that have been dealt out to her people. If anything, kudos to her for sticking to her beliefs.
I am left wondering though if Madi is Silver’s wife, how does she come to let go of this war? To settle into domesticity with Silver? It seems as if this difference in their ideologies is a rift that is just too wide to be reconciled and something they might just grow to resent each other over. Surely Madi’s end cannot be so tragic as to be forced into a life she doesn’t want?
Maybe there’s a period between Black Sails and Treasure Island in which Silver and Madi continue to coordinate efforts with Julius into freeing the new world? I’m not sure, but this might also help to explain Silver’s motives in going after the treasure all those years later? If he does it for Madi, in the sliver of a chance that the cache would help them… Or maybe he does it just because he doesn’t want anyone else to have the cache, to be consumed by the power of it and split apart because of it. I’m just speculating here, I don’t think we’ll ever find out for sure.
Extra thoughts/predictions:
- Billy, I tried to defend you. But I also feel it would be totally hypocritical of me to demonise Billy for killing his brothers when Flint and Silver are doing the exact same thing. He’s in the right place at least to get a map to the cache from Flint and go on the run, living in fear of being found by Silver.
- I am here for Madi dropping truth bombs on Rogers.
- I would have loved more from Jack, but his ‘mmhms’ are keeping me going in an episode that would otherwise be pure pain. Oh do you think that if Jack and Featherstone are close enough, they’ll just see all the smoke from the Walrus and be able to pinpoint their location that way?
- Oh Joji. Now that you’re dead, I will never understand your motives. I’m still finding it hard to believe that he would so easily and readily betray Dooley and Flint. And his goddamn face is indecipherable. I kinda wish he’d gotten to say something before he died.
- I need a moment for DeGroot as well. My steadfast grumpy old pirate. The one so wary of Flint and Silver, yet sticking with them through everything. He stuck with the Walrus and her crew, trying to save them until the end. Go Mr. DeGroot. You will be missed.
- I am hoping that Max and Anne will make it back to Nassau before the end, and maybe without Rogers’ presence and with Mrs. Mapleton on the council, they may have just found an alternative route into taking power back, especially since last week we learnt that the council’s faith in Rogers is shaky at best. Maybe MAYBE Granny Guthrie will be so impressed by what they have been able to do without a man, that she will allow Max to lead without a husband.
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