#jared deserves development

[thatpodcastkid]

Magnus Archives Relisten 17, MAG 17 The Boneturner's Tale

Honestly, if my high school bully got their hands on a Leitner I think basically the same thing would happen.

MAG 17 analysis, spoilers ahead.

Facts: Statement of Sebastian Adekoya regarding a new acquisition at Chiswick Library.

Statement Notes: "Books are amazing, aren't they?"

The first line of this statement is so hopeful. Sebastian approaches what happened to him with this strange light pouring out of him. He takes on the world with a realistic yet deeply optimistic outlook. His character feels out of place in the Magnus Archives world because, although he's afraid, he isn't sick or sad or angry or desperate. Despite the horror he finds himself facing, there isn't any actual disruption to his routine, meaning he doesn't have to change in the face of danger. Adekoya is a static character in a dynamic setting.

As a book lover, Adekoya uses a lot of flowery language in his statement. He spends the first minute giving a speech on the beauty and power of language and the written word. He serves as an incredible contrast to Jared. They don't necessarily have conflicting beliefs, but conflicting focuses. Adekoya deals in the beautiful and abstract, Hopworth deals in the messy and real. Language is art, humans are meat.

Since Sebastian and Jared are around the same age, and Adekoya just graduated college, we can assume Jared is about 22-23 during the events of this statement. His characterization was very realistic. People often joke about hearing the bully of their secondary school getting arrested, but it's very different when you realize the violent but ultimately harmless kid you knew has become a violent and harmful adult. Often, that violent energy is turned against family members first. Those who tried to help, those who enabled, those who don't deserve it.

The end of the statement was very frightening. The violence enacted against Adekoya is a show of power by Jared and, in turn, The Boneturner's Tale. The Magnus Archives is an eldritch horror story, and The Bonetruner's Tale holds power no human can possibly understand. It is capable of enacting violence no human can understand. Its power is so great, we are left to assume a car killed Sebastian, because no living thing could do that much damage. Right?

In addition to Mike Crew's strange strategy of dropping the Leitner off in a random library, he chose to file it as Trainspotting of all things. This means that not only did Crew check out Trainspotting from the library, but he now owns the copy. Does this matter at all to the plot or metaplot of TMA? No. Does it matter to my heart? Yes.

Entity Alignment: Another strong Flesh episode. When Hopworth's mother is described as missing bones in her arm, I began to wonder if Boneturner was how Hopworth first began harvesting for the meat pit. Early on, he likely had no knowledge of the ritual. But since Boneturner is what allowed him to steal the flesh of others, it would make sense that he would utilize it to feed and serve the entity.

If not, and Jared only used Boneturner to steal for and add to himself as his powers developed, there is something to be said about the Flesh's affiliation with greed. Humans eat meat partly out of necessity; it's accessible, it's filling, it's fuel. But the excess of meat consumption, the ever-increasing animal slaughter across the world at the expense of our own health and environment? Is that because we're hungry, or because we just want more?

I also noted how Sebastian didn't seem attracted to Boneturner at all. There's a motif with Leitners regarding them "calling out" to people and drawing innocents into their dark ways. But clearly, it's not indiscriminate. The isn't an apple of discord or ring of power situation; Leitners are capable of choosing who they want to attach themselves to. While I don't know much about the Canterbury Tales (feel free to educate me in the notes), it does seem that as the book makes Hopworth stronger, he makes it stronger by feeding its written desire for blood and violence.

Character Notes: Who speaks to their boss like that. Who. I get Elias needs him but is it not suspicious to everyone else when his employee can just say stuff like that? "Fine, fine, I'll be more lovely?" You sarcastic bastard?

This is a...weird intro to Elias to say the least. While of course Jon is being rude and they're passively sniping at each other, Elias does seem calm. He seems responsible and put together. He's not antagonistic in any way. If anything, Jon is the aggressor in the conversation. Up to this point, Jon has been the listener's only lens to view this world through. So when we are presented with a new character to compare him to, and Jon is snippy and rude, we are essentially forced into seeing this character as calm and rational. There was no way for the audience to ever perceive Elias as the villain. Which is exactly what he wanted.

Jon also states the Institute's goal is to "record and study, not interfere or contain." This makes sense for an academic institution (you wouldn't expect a forensic research lab to arrest criminals and keep them on-site), but it becomes interesting in the context of The Magnus Protocol. The Office of Incident Assessment and Response explicitly intends to respond to the supernatural even though it's still questionable how/if they do. Jon's initial goal isn't to take action against the entities, but he is more or less forced to. As of now in TMAGP, Sam wants to be involved in the supernatural, but is forced into a state of inaction.

Also Elias calls him "Jonathan." That doesn't mean anything but god to be a fly on that wall.

There's also the strange implication in this conversation that Rosie is in charge of the recording equipment. If this is true, it clearly doesn't last as Jon slowly becomes lord of the tape recorders. But still, the only reason I can think of for Elias giving his assistant access to the tapes is to indulge her "nosy Rosie" habits. She seems to only have access to the digital recordings, so none of the "real" stuff. But she can still listen to other people's private thoughts and experiences. Elias wants her to look into other people's business so he can keep her on in the world to come.

The first indicator of Martin's absence. "Stomach problems." There is the continued question of Prentiss' lucidity. In her statement regarding the wasp's nest, she seems to be losing her grip on reality. Several statement givers describe her and other infected as mindless monsters. But, she clearly was conscious enough to concoct an elaborate story of Martin's illness and maintain text communications with the archival staff. She would also need to be lucid if she was consciously conducting the corruption ritual, but it's equally possible the ritual was driven by animalistic and unnameable drives given to her by the entity. The Corruption needs Prentiss mindless enough to serve as a source of nameless protruding rot, but still sentient enough to A) not be captured and B) fulfill its worldly tasks. This is another instance of TMA dream logic: Prentiss is lucid enough to lie and form plans, but too far gone to be reasoned with.

[lightofraye]

Hi there!

Per request, I cropped your name.

I also sent you an apology privately for how long it'd taken me to get to this. Largely because it's just a depressing thing to talk about. Danneel is doing classic abuser techniques here--putting him down; humiliating him in front of others (when at cons like Wales Comic Con) or having him repeating negative stories at cons himself; continuously finding fault with him; making him feel like the foolish one; disregarding his thoughts and/or emotions; and using sarcasm to cause harm.

Imagine having your own spouse, your partner of what... 17 years?... saying "You'll do" when they're stanning other, wealthier actors and stars. Like, wow. Consolation prize? Thanks? As though she didn't force his hand into proposing to him. Mind, Jensen even said she laid down an ultimatum--propose or she walked. That's love, for sure!

Imagine landing no less than three shows with Amazon and a regular guest starring appearance on a major broadcaster... and still being told "Not impressed". God. That's painful.

He may likely be so busy that despite what some AAs are saying ("It's only 1.5 hour flight to home!"), he might not even fly back home all that much. Why would he? For his kids? Absolutely. For his so-called loving wife? Not so much.

Have you noticed in that clip, Jared had to stop Jensen from rambling? Because he was listening to his friend and brother in all but blood put himself down repeatedly, hearing how his friend's wife is being emotionally abusive... in public, no less. I can't even imagine how Jared feels about this.

Mind, Jared knew Danneel before Jensen did (or so Danneel claimed). Ever notice how they barely ever hang out in the past? If all four of them--Jared, Gen, Jensen and Danneel--did hang out, Jared was rarely spotted with her. He knew what kind of person she was and wanted nothing to do with her.

Even Gen barely engaged with Danneel. Oh, Gen was friendly and warm in public--I'm reminded of that one live video where Gen praised Danneel's acting as Sister Jo/Anael on Sueprnatural and the look Danneel gave her... Danneel knew Gen didn't mean it.

Getting sidetracked here.

I know a lot of anti Jensens won't agree with me here, and that's all fine. We're allowed different opinions. Even those who are "Jensen critical" would disagree as well. Also fine. What I'm about to say next is my own personal opinion, speculation, and observation.

As I've mentioned before, I'm a survivor of abuse. From childhood onward, I've endured a variety. Emotional neglect, physical abuse, even sexual abuse as a child. That wrecks people. Because we're experiencing abuse from the hands of people who should love us. So if our own parents, siblings, relatives, whatever, are hurting us... we start to think: "Did I do something to deserve this mistreatment? Am I such a horrible person?"

And if that isn't corrected--and too often childhood survivors are overlooked and ignored, not able to get the help they desperately need, they often develop and grow into insecure adults with low self-esteem and low self-value.

One very common refrain will ring in their minds: "I am unworthy and undeserving of love."

This is where I feel Jensen's issues stem from. He was exploited by his parents for their gain and profit. Modeling, acting, often told by his father he's being punished out of love (thus creating a negative association of what love really is), and likely surrounded by a lot of people who use him for their gain and profit.

I can't speculate on the relationship between his parents, but what little I've heard and seen of Alan Ackles, it doesn't sound like a healthy example either.

If you don't know what a healthy relationship looks like, or experience it yourself... one struggles a lot. It's how generational trauma is created. My paternal grandfather... was abusive. Emotional and... otherwise (there's a massive skeleton in that closet that left me floored when I discovered it). My own father continued it. I'm determined to break it and I think I've largely succeeded. No, I didn't have a healthy relationship, but I grew strong enough to know what I had wasn't it.

I'd rather be single than in an unhappy relationship. Unfortunately, for so many survivors and victims, it's never easy. Because the voices in their head parroting the fears back to them lie.

It's sadly easier to say "Oh. That person made that choice! It's their own damned fault they're unhappy!" Or "They're the ones who stay!" It's easier to judge than it is to admit that it's not a cut-and-dry situation. That breaking the emotional abuse cycle, that breaking free from abuse in general, is never, ever easy.

I speak from experience. I lost quite a few friends because they actually thought I wanted to stay, or that I was being unreasonable in my fear. Not once did they bother to reach out and try to understand from my end.

"Oh just leave!"

No... it's never easy to "just leave".

Jensen's trapped in a very vicious cycle right now. He finds it easier to put himself down and think he deserves it, than to admit that he's in a situation that he could leave. It's scary to leave. It's the unknown. It's easier, in so many ways, to live with the pain we know than the pain we don't.

Danneel knows it, feeds on it, uses it.

I rambled on a lot. I appreciate your ask and your compassion for Jensen.

Thank you for reading.

[episodeoftv]

Round 1 of 6, Group 1 of 4

Propaganda is under the cut (671 words) - may contain spoilers

summaries (pulled from imdb or wikis)

propaganda

Chén Qíng Lìng/The Untamed - 1.50 Episode 50

The mastermind who plans everything has appeared. He's not someone who wouldn't think he would be the one who is behind everything, including Wei Wuxian's comeback. Who would that be?

I nominate this final on grounds of CCP information control, censorship and homophobia. They were so scared of the power of wangxian that they ended up banning ao3 in china and in the show they have to inexplicably have them part ways just to hammer home the no-homo. Plus the show is just kind of objectively bad.... but it rewires your brain all the same

Supernatural - 15.20 Carry On

cw: suicide

After Chuck is defeated and someone takes his place, Sam and Dean go about their life of hunting, but things don't turn out as expected.

1) you know why 2) god. where do i fucking start. this episode completely ignores this large cast of characters that were considered family in order to make it the "just two brothers" show again, scrapping basically every shred of character development shown throughout the course of the show, cutting out incredibly important characters at the last second (i.e. eileen being replaced with blurry wife for no fucking reason, cas not being there at all despite the whole love confession/ dying for dean that happened just two episodes before). in the penultimate episode the boys fight god. the finale? a random vampire from an episode of season one, who up until this point had never been mentioned again. then we have Dean being impaled on a very phallic looking spike and, after a speech about it just being about the brothers, dies. he then goes to heaven, where his father figure tells him his abusive dad is just down the road. he hops in his car (also in heaven, somehow) and drives for the next 60 odd years waiting for Sam to die. meanwhile, sam is moving on with blurry wife and i shown with a son named dean (as seen stitched onto his clothes), and we eventually see sam, now old and clad in the crustiest looking wig i have ever seen, die in the hospital. he goes to heaven, meets Dean on a bridge, and the last shot is the entire cast and crew on the bridge saying goodbye, completely shattering the fourth wall because fuck it, who cares anymore. and this isn't even mentioning everything that happened after. just an absolute mess the whole way through. 3) Random villain from season 1 kills one of the main characters, he goes to heaven and drives around while the other main character gets a montage of growing old a horrible wig. And that's not even all. 4) It abandoned 15 years of series theme and character growth, veered away from the natural story line and failed to resolve major plot threads. Dean deserved better, and so did Cas. See also Jared's terrible wig, Dean jr, Dean driving through heaven for five minutes... 5) Dean dies in the most anticlimactic way, cheap wig, blurry wife 6) There was no Castel :( 7) I mean... 8) destroyed every character arc in one fell swoop. the guy who tried to kill himself and struggled with depression throughout the show ended up killing himself anyway! was cas’s death even important? who was blurry wife? why was the absolute ugliest toddler imaginable cast to play Sam’s son? but in order to truly grasp how decimating this finale was, you have to understand the queerbaiting between 15.18 and the finale. why did Misha post that pic in the onion field with Uriel. why was Misha originally credited to be in 19 episodes of the final season on IMDb. why was . Hrrgghh. 9) Do I even need to write propaganda for this one? Even though it was the series finale we are still here after 3 years 😂 Title said 'carry on', but the fandom said 'nah, time for season 16'. 10) Bad old man makeup and no castiel 11) Everything had been neatly wrapped up in the previous episode. Then they decided "Hey you know what would be great? If we just killed one of the main characters." They killed him for no reason. He deserved to live a full life, have a family, retire, but nope! He met his match in a RUSTY NAIL. Not to mention that there were terrible wigs, blurry wives, and subtextual incest vibes involved.

+ After it aired, one of the actors unfollowed everyone who had anything to do with the episode.

[stalltherain]

Manifest finale spoilers. I'm about to rant.

What the f-ck was that ending?

It might as well have all been a dream. Other than Mick meeting Zeke, a few people disappearing, and Saanvi's cancer treatment coming out soon enough to treat Cal, nothing is different than if the show had never happened.

I'd have preferred the characters find happiness in their shitty world. Or heck, even all of them dying in their shitty world to sacrifice themselves for people they love (that would have required a different setup from the beginning of s4 so that we saw the people that the passengers loved).

This ending reminds me of the dilemma in scifi where a character has to chose to live in a happy fake world or a tough & gritty real world. The show writers chose the happy fake. I'd have preferred to see the real world.

I was optimistic for this season and really had hope this show was going to be better than previous shows about explaining the mystery. Of all the theories of how it would go, resetting back to the plane not crashing was the most boring one & what I really hoped wouldn't happen. I guess it's a satisfying-ish ending if you had low expectations.

I just thought we'd actually get some answers, and was also disappointed by all but one of the character's endings. Since the show chose to ignore the mystery and focus on character stories, I'm going to address my issues with those.

TJ lost Olive, but immediately seems to forget her because another cute girl shows up.

Mick ends her relationship with Jared, because he wants kids and she doesn't, but how did that never come up for them in conversation before. Took my opinion of both of them down a bit. Then, 5 seconds after Jared got dumped by the woman he wanted to marry, he's already flirting with another woman. Took my opinion of Jarod about as low as it can get. Shame because I had actually liked him.

The Cal, Olive, and Grace we knew are all gone. Never going to even exist. They're basically fake versions of themselves now. Grace is reset back to season 1, which means she's the annoying version I wanted Ben to dump. Also, how is Ben going to explain that he had sex with someone on the plane? Season 1 Grace would not be open to the whole "hey, we went to another world or whatever" story. She didn't believe anything Ben said about it until she saw it affecting Cal. There's no way she believes his story if she hears it led to him sleeping with someone else. Unless Ben plans to lie to his wife, she's leaving him soon. If he does keep it a secret that he slept with Cal's doctor, that just means she'll leave a little later. Keeping that secret will destroy their relationship. It was a really terrible writing choice to have Ben and Saanvi hook up and then just go back to their previous partners like nothing changed. I think they're great together, but I'd have preferred nothing happen if that was how it ended.

The one thing I really wanted was for Saanvi to realize that she deserves better than the person who kept rejecting her over and over, but nope. Zero growth. I felt so bad for her and feel like from what we know of Alex, she'll go right back to her family soon. Or maybe Saanvi will get enough self esteem to get angry at how Alex treated her (both by not taking the flight and by how she repeatedly rejected her in the real world).

Vance is back to being kind of a jerk who knows none of them. I suppose I'm glad he has his family back, but his character development was meaningless. I'd rather have seem him get his family back in the real world.

The only ending that didn't suck was Mick found Zeke based on what he told her in the real world. I personally wasn't attached to Mick with either guy, so I wasn't expecting her ending to be the most satisfying. At least one story we watched ended up having meaning.

After so many shows have ended disappointingly, I just really wanted one to stick the landing. (pun not intended, but I'm keeping it) This ending was a major (pun also not intended, but I'm also keeping it) bummer.

I don't know how go wrap this up, so I'm just going to drop this. In five years or less, Ben and Grace are definitely split. So are Saanvi and Alex. Hey, maybe Benvi will get back together then. Lol.

[saltygilmores]

Thoughts While Watching Gilmore Girls, Season 2, Episode 21- Lorelai's Graduation Day, Aka The Best Episode That Ever Episoded, My Heart Will Soon Be Exploded. Part 1

This is my all time favorite episode of Gilmore Girls. It is so dear and special to me. Why? It includes (but is not limited to) the following qualities: 1.Jess and Rory go on their only psuedo-date!!!!! EVER! 2.Lorelai is safely contained in another location..another STATE...for the entire psuedo-date! 3.Although this is unfortunately not a Certified Dean Free Episode, his presence is limited to only 1 minute of nonsense! 4.Frankly, there is no interference from ANYBODY. Just Jess and Rory being so fucking cute and alone together! 5.Milo eats a hot dog! 6.Rory follows her dear little heart, skips school, goes to New York City and in the process screws over Lorelai by missing her graduation which is what she deserves. Lorelai deserves all the bad things. Huzzah! 7. Season 3 is just over the horizon. I skipped the two previous episodes, but you can read everything else here. Let's GOOOOO. Since I skipped right past the dumpster fires that were Teach Me Tonight and whatever the godforsaken episode is that came after it, I missed a few things and can only rely on my memory and context clues. It appears that Lorelai has staged another boycott against Luke's Diner, since Lorelai Gilmore is Certified CrazyPantsMcGee and she and Luke are on the outs because his nephew got into a minor car accident. It makes sense in her mind, don't try to understand it, you might break your own brain. The episode opens with Lorelai's search for a new breakfast spot. Instead of saving a few bucks and just pouring her and Rory a bowl of cereal at home for once.

Whenever the Gilmores mention or visit other locales outside of The Hollow, it's kinda weird, because I think of Stars Hollow as a bubble cut off from the rest of normal society. Like when they go to the mall and stuff? What are you doing outside The Bubble, Citizens? The atmosphere is unsafe. But, the episodes that take place outside The Bubble, like this one, are some of the best ones. Other certified Outside The Bubble greats: The Bangles concert, the drag show, Lorelai and Emily's spa day.

I guess I missed the birth of Lane the Drummer as well.

Sure Lorelai, exploit your friend for free labor instead of sticking a fucking Pop Tart in a toaster.

The food on this show always looks amazing. Props to the Gilmore Girls food display person.

Someone on this show has a conscience. Good for her. That being said, I'm glad she throws her moral compass in the trash when she decides to skip school. Lorelai and Dean can drown in a pit of rattlesnakes.

Jackson and Sookie are sex freaks 100%. Good for them. Why couldn't they give Jared Padalecki a paycheck to sleep in every episode too? Another thing I missed in episodes 19 and 20: Lorelai going back to school.

Really, I thought her head was emptier than The Independence Inn on a Tuesday afternoon. That her one brain cell would have plenty of room to chill out, take a little swim, see the sights.

The "knowledge" stuffed in Lorelai's brain: Dean Forrester's penis size, whether or not Dean Forrester likes those little marshmallows in his cocoa, how to say "Michel, cover my shift, I'm leaving work in the middle of the day", assorted deep seated childhood traumas. Lorelai made a comment about how her finals are the last time she has to cram anything in and I thought of a joke so dirty I decided not to post it. Filtering any thought is not the SaltyGilmores way, so you should be glad I spared you.

What? You’ve finally developed an ounce of self awareness? Did you realize you're a raging bitch who leaves misery and destruction in her wake wherever she goes? Stop lobbing me so many softballs, damn. (The real answer: She hates school and learning is stupid). L: This learning thing is self inflicted! I'm a masochist! I may as well be carrying a switch and peridocally lacerating myself with it! But enough about what you and Dean Forrester do when Rory's not home.

In a future episode, after Rory has risked her future by solely applying to Ivy League schools with less than 10% acceptance rates and is unsurpisingly, experiencing doubt about whether or not she'll get in to any of them, Lorelai remarks that Rory is going to Harvard and that's that; she will not allow her daughter to end up at a Community College or, god forbid, beauty school. In Lorelai's world there are no colleges that exist for her child in between Harvard and Stars Hollow Makeup Academy. My headcanon is that Shane (if Jess hadn't fed her to the swans after the Dance Marathon. RIP ) goes to beauty school and makes a fine living. Rory carries too much pressure on her shoulders and her life and career flame out. It's a tale as old as time. To her credit, in this scene Lorelai isn't really slandering her school, but talking about how the school is so small that her ceremony will be unremarkabl. But there wil be one, so she has decided to participate. She did not walk in her high school graduation ceremony because she had a 1 year old at the time, such is the consequence of boinking Crusty Hayden on your parents' balcony in the middle of winter. R: You should do it! You've worked hard! You earned it! Yes, she's worked so hard at this for such a long time that she decided on, enrolled in, and graduated from an entire college business program over the course of two episodes. R: You should invite Gramma and Grampa. L: Forget it. They won't want to be there. I was supposed to graduate high school, go to Vassar*, marry a Yale man, and get myself a proper nickname like Babe or Bunny or Shih Tzu. Instead, I got pregnant, didn't finish school, I didn't marry your father, I ended up in a career that even Jessica Hahn** would think is beneath her. I humiliated them, the two proudest people in the world, I humliated them. I spoiled their plans. I took their fine upbringing in a world of comfort and opportunity and I threw it in their faces. I broke their hearts and they'll never forgive me. I don't want them there. It'll hurt them, and hurt me. (please see footnotes at end of post for additonal commentary on this speech) Lorelai's 16 year old daughter, who 15 seconds earlier was looking forward to her mother's graduation, but is now being trauma dumped on by her mother, and is not unaware that this is about her:

Her name is "Dean Forrester's future stepdaughter." Look at me ragging on Dean and he's not even here! Ha! HA!

Ha? :( Dean is attempting to use his feeble brain to mansplain a concept to the women. What is it?

Given his history of stalking, harrasment and verbal abuse, the thought of Dean honing his skills with a weapon should be incredibly frightening, but the girls want to hear more from this armed predator. Lorelai is very interested in how Dean Forrester yields his weapon. Dean’s Hobby Of the Episode is, *spins wheel* Skeet shooting, also known as clay pigeon shooting. (he helpfully mansplains to Rory that he is not shooting actual pigeons, that's just what the clay disks are called), and then the ladies ask several more dumb questions like "what if you actually hit a real bird?" in what is perhaps some kind of attempt by AmyShermanPalladino to show that Dean Smart Women Dumb. But I'm a grizzled veteran of your show, AmyShermanPalladino. You're not getting the "Dean is intelligent" ruse over on me this far into the second season. Nice try. R: Why are you into this? D: My dad did this when he was my age and he wanted to pass the tradition down. Your dad wishes your mom had swallowed.

I keep getting distracted by how Rory's sleeves are always tucked into her cast instead of over the cast, sorry. I've never had a cast and it just looks strange. Why am I thinking about this? Why am I like this? I like Lorelai's hoodie. There, I said something nice about her. Happy? L:If you get real good at shooting clay pigeons, do you move onto other animals like chicken and sheep? Well, future serial killers like Dean do usually start out by hurting animals. And that is the end of Dean for the entire episode. A meager one minute of Dean per episode is a dream come true. * At the first mention of Vassar, my brain immediately jumped to Bedford Diaries (aka Slutty Jess at College), where Milo's character (Richard Thorn, I mean, Slutty Jess) sleeps with his professor's estranged wife and she compliments his sexual prowess by saying "You'll make some Vassar girl very happy one day." Best not to do what I did, which is to cross pollinate the two shows and timelines in my mind (more or less against my will) and imagine some pretty horrible implications.

** I did some light Googling on Jessica Hahn, and I am NOT unpacking this reference.

[tvintedspvrkmoved]

hahahah i'm losing my mind ??????

so two very cool things are true right now which are :

- in twelve days my best girl will have existed in some form for an entire year - i'm about to be able to say there are officially HUNDREDS of you here ???? like as in the plural form ??????

neither of these things make any sense to me , but since both are true i figured it would be a good time to do what i guess is a little follow forever type thing. SO. here are some of the people who have helped emma grow and develop and also helped me grow and develop as a person and as a writer 🤍

-------------------------- ★ ---------------------------

@dalphahale : honestly a day one bc i didn't really do very much with emma until around march i think and that's around when we started writing if i'm not mistaken ?? one of the best / most show accurate dereks i've ever come across and one of the best people too !!!! you're an incredible writer and honestly a saint in human form for putting up with me ooc lmao it's an honor to bless your dms every day with the most random and chaotic messages and thoughts and only be a LITTLE bit judged for it 😂 derek and emma are one of the most adorable ships i've ever seen and derek and allison are iconic as well i just think you're the bee's knees okay you're stuck with some form of my chaos indefinitely i fear 🤷‍♀️

@stanfordprepped : jared. JARED. another og and one of my best friends in the rpc. samemma is so unbelievably iconic and i'm so amazed and proud of everything that's come from them and from us writing together and from you in general i'm SO excited about charlotte's development and about samlena and about just all of our dynamics ahhhhh you are so unbelievably strong and talented and you deserve every good thing in the entire world bc the love and respect that you hold for others even on your worst days is so admirable i can't even fathom it sometimes.

@multi-royalty : MADDIE MY BELOVED i ????? owe so much of everything i've accomplished this year to you 😭🙏 you not only pulled me back when i was debating whether or not to even continue writing , but helped to develop some of my most cherished muses and threads and plots and headcanons. you're the sweetest little bean in the entire world and i can't even begin to thank you for everything you've done for and with me and the light that you bring to this community even when you can't see it 🤍

@guiltye : bitch i'll yell FOREVER at and about you are you kidding ????? your writing gives me literal chills and the plots that we have are some of the deepest most complex and incredible dynamics i've ever been a part of. you've been through so much this year and kicked ass until you got to the other side and still managed to help ME through so much too and i'm sure so many others and i just adore you okay i live for all lilly content but especially your ooc posts bc i just think your brain is so neat and i love getting to glimpse into it sometimes you're just incredible 🥹🤍 ps thank u for letting me yell about noah kahan without abandon and getting in ur feelings about him with me lol

@boundforhale // @stilesstylelinski : obviously i had to put y'all together you can't split up the gremlins okay. i love you both so much and i actually can't even begin to describe how much you guys have helped me this year both to be a better writer and to get through so many rough patches irl. i'm still not entirely convinced that australia is real but if it DOES exist i will not rest until i can fly there and we can all meet at a central location and proceed to just implode the whole universe with the sheer chaos and buffoonery. y'all are actually family at this point i don't know what i would do without you fr

@carp3diems : LISTEN HERE BITCH bff bestie angel i love you to pieces and if you ever leave me again i'll riot !!!! you're genuinely one of the coolest people i've ever met and i love all of our dynamics so damn much but what we've created with colbemma is just so insane and incredible and i know i just screamed about this in the dms but i genuinely cannot believe they started out hating each other lmao they're truly iconic and i can't wait to see how they continue to grow and thrive and also how YOU continue to grow and thrive

@redhoodiskra : A. you are an actual ray of sunshine and so incredibly talented and WAY TOO HARD ON YOURSELF and completely amazing and fantastic and i just love you a lot !!!! stiles and emma and the little family they've created make my heart so happy and so do all of our other dynamics !!!! we haven't written much on @westwingsolo yet and we absolutely should change that bc i'm in awe of you and your writing and the creativity you bring to your muses they're both so special and you can 100% see the love you've put into both.

i wish i could write everyone a little message but here are some more lovelies that you should absolutely go follow !!!! a lot of them have other pages with more incredible muses as well 🤍

@fuckmeupindie , @hellgiven , @gunchamber , @ofcrxwns , @escapedfromthevoiid , @ruinedmyself , @goldenboybarracuda , @delicatestm , @sarcasticsnackpack , @fidelissimi , @ofblackskies , @ratkiing , @snnydcys , @flamefallen , @impurc , @clockturned , @r4chelamber , @unbearablyindifferent , @mystictragedies , @conradfish3r , @jimh9334 , @jchnwinchester , @qapsiel , @thornstocutyouwith , @unitcd , @surgcns , @localsalt , @mecwmellc

[blues-valentine]

I finished watching Manifest a few weeks ago, so my comments are probably old but here it is. It’s not a bad ending by any means — but if the original idea was for them to be back to the day the plane landed but make the right choices then why develop all of those relationships in the last season if it wasn’t going to mean much of anything in the finale. It’s like they wanted to give the audience everything and nothing for the last season at the same time. And it sucks.

The first thing, if they wanted Zeke x Michaela to be endgame since the start, why not actually make Jared fall in love with Drea like genuinely instead of relinking his relationship with Mick, making them be happy all of Season 4 but then forcing a Drea pregnancy and ultimately get Michaela to send him away to her? I feel like Drea deserved for Jared to choose her on his own and not because Michaela said not to him. It was so lame to give them a one episode endgame that didn’t feel earned when they could’ve build to that on Season 3/Season 4. I get Mick needed to be with Jared to see what she wanted but it could’ve been done better.

I never cared about TJ nd Olive since it was weird that TJ was 18 and Olive was 12 when they first saw each other. They managed to make their relationship less creepy after the time jump since Olive was a little older and “TJ was mentally still 18” but it didn’t make it less inappropriate. I didn’t care when he left and didn’t care when he came back but I get it since he was an OG passenger but the writers were obsessed with giving Olive a love interest when most of it didn’t add anything to the plot. And at the finale, it was clear that their relationship isn’t happening (at least in a loong time) since Olive needs to be a child, as it was meant to be and in the finale they made it seem like TJ and Violet (Adult Cal!first date) might be a future thing. So, was their romance on Season 4 even necessary? And I didn’t forget the college guy they made Olive date on Season 3 for nothing.

And then there’s the Saanvi and Ben thing.

Since the very start of the series they had such chemistry. And I don’t know if that was the idea or it was just the actors but they got in each other’s personal space real quick. And then they hinted at Saanvi’s romantic feelings for Ben in one of her therapy sessions — but I was still okay with them never crossing that line & keeping it platonic. Then, Grace dies and they still didn’t go there so at that point I thought they were going to keep it platonic but then they did made it canon and emphasized on how strong their connection is to the point they don’t feel it with anyone else — and a physical attraction they themselves are very aware of. And not just them but even Mick notices too. And they act on that attraction. Saanvi is Ben’s intellectual soulmate and best friend, in canon. He would trust her with his life in a heartbeat and viceversa. For about 6 years, they were each other’s confidants. And so, the show makes it canon but then backtracks and goes “but they still love their other partners and would go back to them” and that would be fine since it’s fair but here’s the thing with all that:

In the finale, they landed the day they were all supposed to land but now with some different perspective and experiences to make certain choices about their lives. They [the passengers] got to have and remember those experiences, not the people in their life. Ben, Saanvi, Mick are canonically different people from what they were — which is not true for the people in their life. Grace and Ben were at the verge of divorce before the plane — so magically that’s gonna be resolved now since Ben got to live a life where he loses her but she doesn’t even remember? The issues in Grace and Ben’s marriage won’t exist now that Ben knows Cal will be cured? Okay. Will Alex truly leave her husband and committ to an exclusive relationship with Saanvi? Because that was their issue as well.

And you want to tell me neither of those women will notice that there’s this connection between Ben and Saanvi that seems way too deep for two people that just met on a 4 hour flight? I don’t know about Alex but will Grace not feel threatened by this inexplicable bond and would they ever be able to fully be happy with their partners if they aren’t honest about all the experiences they shared together and some that would even count as emotional cheating? Like, we saw during the finale how Ben was so not ready to lose Saanvi. And it’s not like Saanvi will be away from their new life, she will be Cal’s doctor and will be in their life the same way she was in their old life. Grace and Ben were able to fix their relationship before because the callings were affecting Cal since she understandably didn’t believe Ben at first but now Cal doesn’t remember either. Then, she got pregnant and that gave their relationship a new propose but now nothing guarantees that their relationship will turn out the same way without those heavy circumstances. I’d like to think both Saanvi and Ben needed the chance to be with them the way it was supposed to be and see if it’s actually going to work out but I don’t think it will because 2023 Grace and Alex are still their 2018 selves while Ben and Saanvi are not.

The situation is different from Mick because neither Jared or Zeke have memories of what went down — she’s the only one that got to have a future with both of them and choose which one she wanted. That whole journey allowed her to understand that Jared and her might want different things from life and they would only get marry to fill a void — and she knows there’s other people that will align more with what they’d want for the future. It makes sense that she didn’t went back to what she was going to do before the plane dissapear. So, it doesn’t make sense for Ben or Saanvi to go back to their old life without thinking there won’t be any changes with their entire dynamic.

[makingshortstorieslong]

Desert Skies theroy:

this is likely nothing, as I know Jared does all the voices so there may be some overlap, but also he's incredible at it and I can tell his characters apart by voice alone more consistently than I sometimes can for shows with different voice actors, so -

does anyone else think Nonny and.... her name completely escapes me, the Mean Old Lady... could be related?

My three pieces of 'evidence' that made me think this during the episode were:

Their accents/voices. Nonny has this interesting way of dragging out her L sounds, and I thought I noticed that in the Mean Old Lady too. Their voices were distinct, but I think it was just in pitch, I thought the way they spoke was similar.

The way Nonny reacted to the woman. She jumped really quickly to 'she's an abuser and there's nothing you can do to change her.' ...this also might just be because the episode wasn't supposed to be too too long and it had to get to the point of 'Tendy can't save everyone and he needs to be aware of that and stop pressuring himself,' but like. Towards the beginning I was very much on Tendy's side, give the woman a chance, she just died, sure she's a bitch but everyone deserves an opportunity, you just met her... Of course hitting Nonny seriously crossed a line and at no point did I like her, and even if she is irredeemable I don't think the point is that she is irredeemable but rather that Tendy does not personally have to redeem her (she's got a lot of sphere to go through! if she's going to experience character development, there'll be times and places for it then! so he can cut himself a break, put himself and his friends first!) But all that said: I felt like Nonny wrote her off very quickly and in such strong language - immediately jumping to the words 'abuse' and 'abuser' that it inclined me to think she knew this woman (or at the very least someone similar)

The mention of the woman's daughter.

I've only listened to it once and idk, I don't really think this was the intent, but it crossed my mind more than once while listening and it COULD be. I kind of want it to be just because it would be cool to predict something lol but I don't think I'm right. I don't remember if it was established whether time works normally / in order on the Astral Plane but I feel like it doesn't... so anyway maybe Nonny could be that woman's daughter... but of course the woman didn't seem to recognize her so probably not.

[scripted-downfall]

Jensen in DA is SO GOOD. Alec is my bebe and I love him. He deserves better. Even that proves how good of an actor he is.

I also feel Jared puts Jen down whether intentionally or not. Jen would not be caught dead really insulting Jared but Jpad seems to wear it a badge of honor if he can get Jen flustered.

And don't even get me started on the prequel thing.

That's something I don't think I can ever forgive.

He's not a toddler and depression doesn't excuse bad behavior.

And Jared is the golden child of the cw and I think it's bc he's a spoiled brat. He gets what he wants bc he knows they need him.

Idk. I just hope either Jen goes off at some point or that Jared gets what's coming to him. I'm waiting for his in Icarus moment.

Jensen's going places. Jared has no future outside of Daddy cw.

-Actor

Hello again! Sorry for the delay; it was Very Late when we were speaking earlier, and I didn't see your notification come through before I was conking out for the night :) It was nice to find waiting for me though!

And yes, absolutely; Alec was an awesome character, and I cannot stress that enough! He was done unfortunately dirty by the situations on set --- now that is an irl situation that I've heard a lot about --- but I really liked what they were able to produce in spite of that. I loved the friendship that developed between him and Joshua, especially (though it'd be nice if that X-5 from his past missions had been able to stick around for longer, so he wasn't quite so isolated). Also, though it isn't saying anything about Alec, per se, I loved 'Pollo Loco'; it was one of the few s1 episodes I really enjoyed.

I will be the first to confess that I don't know as much as others about Jensen's and Padalecki's irl interactions, but I've seen a number of clips from conventions and the like, and I've had the same impression. Given that these were just clips I came across looking at neutral tags on Tumblr, the fact that a random sample of these all left me with the same impression definitely tends to suggest that there's a statistical prevalence for that kind of behavior. Additionally, those bits I have seen --- his tantrums on Twitter, his thing about "anyone could have played Dean", being negative towards Misha (e.g. calling him a servant "jokingly" when he brings Jensen a beer, etc), and --- lest I be called biased again --- even the non-Jensen-centric bits of vitriol I've seen on Padalecki's social media.

And. The prequel thing. I feel like that speaks for itself.

As for the rest, I think it's probably easiest just to say that I agree (and I can feel the stans readying their keyboards for more threats, so keeping this brief is probably a good idea). We'd been talking earlier about the pride before the fall, but I like your term: Icarus moment. And yeah, for now, Padalecki's at least treading water. Maybe that'll last for a while --- especially given that he has an entire army of people willing to fight for him, for some (not so) unknown reason --- and, if it does, I guess I congratulate him. Fooling a large number of people is, after all, the main job that an actor's supposed to accomplish and, personally, I can't help but feel that he's managed it to some degree. After all, convincing this many people he can act is an impressive trick!

[laf-outloud]

I'm going to sound like a bitter Jared stan, but I swear I'm not, lol. It seems unfair though that producing was Jared's future and he actually has talent at it, yet for some reason he doesn't have his own production company.

The Ackles on the other hand wouldn't know a good idea if it punched them in the face, and spent over two years at the helm of CM only to come up with the biggest stinker of a show, and they keep getting opportunities they don't deserve thrown at them.

I think Jared does have a production company. These are the companies listed for Walker (and similarly for WIndy).

Rideback is Dan Lin's company, I can't specific company info on the others, but I think Pursued By A Bear is Anna Fricke's, which would leave Stick to Your Guns as Jared's (logo below).

Not to mention that Jared and Gen have frequently spoken about working together on projects and having things in development. Those are all things producers would say.

If I'm right, Jared's actually done a good job of garnering the support of other production companies that can help invest and offset additional costs. Plus, he gets showrunners that are invested in making sure the shows succeed because they have a vested interest.

I don't yet know why Amazon took on CMP, but I have a feeling we'll find out if we ever see one of their productions make it to creation.

[envythemouse]

All-time Sam/Gabriel recs

Five Times Sam Gave Gabriel the Kiss of Death (and One Time he Didn't) by ScrollingKingfisher

Summary: Everybody Sam kisses dies, right? That's his curse. So he figures that if it works on his lovers, it should damn well work on his enemies, too.

Only this is Sam Winchester's life, and nothing is ever easy like that.

Envy’s notes: Not placing these fics in a particular order but this one deserves to be first because of the amount of times I go back to it. Sam thinks the people he kisses are cursed and so at Mystery Spot decides to kiss Gabriel when he thinks he’s the enemy. He does it again in Changing Channels and eventually falls in love with Gabriel, now Sam is scared Gabriel’s gonna die because he kissed him.

A Time To Cast Away Stones by TheRiverScribe

Summary: The healing Gadreel had begun during his unwelcome tenure in Sam’s body had slowly unraveled in the weeks since the angel’s forced ejection. Castiel’s own borrowed grace dwindled in strength with each passing day. And Dean? Dean had the Mark of Cain, which seemed to lend the bearer power at the cost of their humanity.

They were all running out of time.

Envy's notes: Had to edit this post because somehow I forgot to put this one on here even though it's in my top 3. Cas helps Sam to time-travel back to the mystery spot era. Sam knocks out his younger self right before confronting the trickster after Dean permanently dies, he then hugs Gabriel who is disguised as Bobby and confronts him. I love any fic where Sam time-travels and confuses the fuck out of Gabriel by being affectionate.

Hoo-Doo Yoo-Doo by Violet Hyena

Summary: Sam's secret is that he's a drag queen. Gabriel meets his alter ego, Doe Adeer, and they hit it off very well. Sam is nervous about telling Gabriel who he is, but Gabriel might figure it out himself first.

Envy’s notes: Very lighthearted and sweet, NoHunting!AU, secret identities.

In Memory Of... by MonPetitTresor

Summary: "Over the years, Sam had become quite intimate with the concept of loss and he'd developed a few different coping mechanisms to help him deal with it. He learned to honor the memory of those he'd lost and he made sure to never forget them. Remembering them gave him the strength to keep going on. To keep fighting."

Only, for the first time, someone that he lost - someone other than his brother - comes back, and Sam's forced to confront just how much that being actually meant to him.

Envy’s notes: Sam gets a tattoo in honour of Gabriel after he dies, Gabriel luckily does not stay dead and eventually finds out about the tattoo when healing an injured Sam.

The French Mistake 2.0; or, Gabriel Being A Dick by LPCollins

Summary: "Hey baby, I got you flowers." "CAS?!" "Ahh yes, because that never gets old, Jared. Anyway, how was your day, baby?" "Me? ... Dude, I married fake Cas." "Actually it's Misha, you know, just in case you didn't read the marriage license when you signed."

Envy’s notes: Sam and Dean get thrown back into our world. Except that Misha and Jensen are married, so are Jared and Richard. Sam and Dean have to try getting back to their universe without disrupting this one.

Spoiler: Jared and Richard are having marriage struggles, Sam slept with Gabriel without knowing this

"But why would Rich want to? He knows they're fighting," Misha argued.

Sam's eyes grew big at the realization that Misha was right. "That doesn't make any sense."

My theory is that Richard is secretly Gabriel and has lived in our universe since Gabriel’s “death”. This fic is still ongoing and has 21k words right now, very excited for it to update (I have hope that it will).

Highway of Love (Or: How Sam Winchester Learned to Stop Worrying and Relax Already) by Jassy

Summary: AU. Sam noticed a few things weren't quite right after they killed the Trickster. After going back to check things out, his life will never be the same.

Envy’s notes: Sam realises the trickster did not die and returns to the lecture hall to look for him. Gabriel has the ability to stop time and takes Sam on a bunch of dates. A very romantic and sweet fic.

Spoiler: Gabriel saves Sam from the reaper when he gets stabbed by Jake, that’s also when Dean finds out about their relationship.

Last Words by Miniatures

Summary: He feels Dean’s eyes on him, but he can’t bring himself to meet his brother’s gaze. His mouth is cotton, his chest scraped raw. He draws back his sleeve and stares, breathing ragged, at the sharp black lettering along his forearm—the last words he’ll ever hear his soulmate say.

"And this is me lying down."

Envy’s notes: The last words your soulmate say to you are written upon your skin. Happy ending.

Beep beep Sammy by ObsessedAngel

Summary: Day 10 Spooptacular!

We’re at an amusement park and I swear to god that clown is following me. (Sam and Gabe, Dean and Cas are there but wandered off. Sam is scared. )

Envy’s notes: Gabriel protects Sam from a clown. Literally.

Sam Winchester, The Heat-Seeker by orphan_account

Summary: Sam gets cold in the bunker, wakes up, and goes to grab some coffee. On his way back, he ends up finding a really warm room. Is there anywhere better for him to sleep?

Envy’s notes: Sleepy and cold Sam goes to Gabriel’s room to steal all his warmth with a cuddle. Comfort!fic.

Thunk by badgerempress

Summary: Sam's had enough and decides to give Dean a taste of his own medicine.

Envy’s notes: Cas and Dean are loud. Sam gets back at them with Gabriel’s help.

Genres of Seduction (or 5 Times the Archangel Gabriel tried to seduce Sam Winchester using Television and 1 Time He Didn’t [but totally did]) by waffleawful

Summary: Angels loved television.

In which Gabriel uses the rules of television to court Sam Winchester.

This fic exists in kind of a nebulous universe where Gabriel left the Elysian Fields hotel and joined the boys in their fight to stop the apocalypse.

Envy’s notes: Fun and lighthearted. What better way to seduce Sam than to put him in a dating game with only you in it?

Morning, Sunshine by misbegotten

Summary: Gabriel likes time loops.

Envy’s notes: You know that scene where they have sex in ‘About Time’? Imagine that but it’s Sabriel and Sam remembers.

Shipmaster Sam by iscatterthemintimeandspace

Summary: Inspired by the Following Tumblr post from sabriel-OTP:

Anon: "What if Sam looks up Destiel fanfictions after this and discovers Sabriel that way?"

Envy’s notes: Sam finds out about Sabriel and enjoys it.

Vanilla In Lace by VioletHyena

Summary: Gabriel wants to spice up the bedroom but Sam is against the idea, at least until he learns he's vanilla. Sam, as a last resort, summons Balthazar to help him because he's not very knowledgeable on lady garments. He then he proves to Gabriel he's not that vanilla.

Envy’s notes: Sam wants to prove he isn’t vanilla and tries crossdressing as a surprise for Gabriel.

Trustfall by DawnOfTheRoses

Summary: Next thing Sam knows, Gabriel’s fingers gently tug at Sam’s wrist and pull his arm over his head, closer to the cuff at the top left corner of the bed. Sam peeks at his arm curiously, and if Gabriel minds him looking, he doesn’t tell him off for it.

“I’m going to tie you up now, Sam. It’s important that you’re honest with me about your colours in the next few minutes, do you understand?” Sam nods, not trusting his voice, but Gabriel is not satisfied. “Use your words, Sam.”

“I understand, sir.”

OR Sam and Gabriel scene for the first time.

Envy’s notes: Very underrated, Gabriel is a soft dom in this and comforts Sam throughout their scene.

Gotta go back in time by pansexualgabriel

Summary: A witch sends Sam back in time & he meets someone he thought he'd never see again.

Envy’s notes: Sam time travels back to S2E15 Tall Tales and hugs Gabriel when he sees him.

Omni gladio ancipiti by lifevolutionary

Summary: The archangel Gabriel had never chosen a Bearer for his sword. Until now.

Envy’s notes: Sam wields archangel Gabriel’s flaming sword.

[purpledaisiesthings]

Did the manifest ending come as a surprise to you? From the beginning I felt like they were going to end it with them back in the same time. I was expecting them to totally pull a Lost. Although, I predicted that they would lose all their memories or it would seem like a dream.

I think most people predicted the reset. Not a shock to many of us 😄. I also thought that they would all lose their memories, but in a way, I'm glad they didn't and that only Cal lost his. The boy has been through a lot and deserves to live a normal childhood.

Having their memories intact would mean that their character development would remain. It would also mean that they get to correct their mistakes and ultimately live the life that they wanted based on what they know about their future. So from that perspective, I liked it.

It sucks that the other people involved don't have their memories (Vance, Zeke, Jared, Drea, Grace, etc) but really, it was mainly about the passengers from the beginning. So I'm not too mad about that.

[dotthings]

lololol I'm going to keep mocking the Jensen twitter stans if they're going to keep going, so will I. They deserve ridicule.

"Misha and Danneel have a 'mean girl energy' about them when it comes to dissing Jensen"

WILL YOU PLEASE REJOIN REALITY WITH THE REST OF US HOW IS THIS A JENSEN STAN LMFAOOOOOOOOOO

Have they missed all the many many jokes Jensen makes trolling Misha, non-serious, AFFECTIONATELY Just like Misha does about him

And how all three of them, Jensen, Misha, and Danneel, have all made jokes about their relationships.

Imagine being this far gone, this warped in parasocializing JENSEN ONLY that you think his wife is mean to him and one of his best friends is mean to him, because the 3 of them make AFFECTIONATE TROLLING JOKES.

It's like their love language. IT'S CUTE. OH MY GOD DEVELOP A SENSE OF HUMOR AND COMPREHENSION ON HOW REAL HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS WORK.

First they turned on Misha, now they're turning on Danneel, and there's already one who took a jab at Jensen. This will not get better. They're just going to keep downspiraling and the final exit is where they viciously turn on Jensen because he doesn't fit their fantasies, because he's not conforming to their demands on behavior.

This is no different than the demands certain Jared stans or Misha stans make on Jensen. That's why I say they're fake Jensen fans.

You can't claim to be a fan of Jensen and yet behave this way. They have some warped parasocialized attachment to Jensen but they don't actually think or respect.

[hologramcowboy]

//Jensen knew this was a Danneel project that he was originally only attached to in name (until something changed during production?) and because Jensen is so crazy loyal to a fault he was trying to do right by Wifey while the whole time trying to do right by Jared his 'Brother' from having his name associated in anyway with this Danneel inspired clusterfuck! In other words he had the foresight to see how this show would be delivered/end up and he was putting himself forward as the fall guy? Falling on his sword by protecting 'his brother' yet again? // - I get anon trying to give him the benefit of the doubt but no. If he was trying to protect Jared he still could have told him!! He could have explained the situation and said, hey look, you don’t want to get involved in this. But he didn’t. He didn’t tell him. He worked with him for weeks filming the last two eps ever, saw him daily for hours and hours and just…. Silence. If he was truly protecting him he would have told him about it and why he was leaving him out. Does anon truly not think that Jared finding out on twitter hurt him? Hurt their relationship?? That was a huge blow. And it could have all been avoided if Jensen had just opened his mouth and told the one person who deserved to know. So no, he wasn’t “protecting Jared” he was being selfish and hiding to avoid dealing with it.

In my humble opinion, I think Danneel kept asking to be involved so much Jensen decided to give her what she wants and let her flop so she could learn a lesson.

As for protecting Jared, as you pointed out, he still could have explained things at the right time. The Ackles had the prequel in development for a long time, plenty of time to tell Jared at any stage since they were clearly conscious of going through with it til the end.

People keep ignoring the huge, huge business betrayal, informed or not, Jared was cheated out of his legacy. People who excuse that are either immature children or truly lack business sense.

Let's stop excusing Jensen for his mistakes, he's human, just like you and me, so he makes mistakes. Why can't people accept that instead of desperately trying to cover it up? Are they unable to love him if he isn't perfect?

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Worst Films of 2022

Well ladies and gentlemen, 2022 has come to an end. Luckily, this year of cinema hasn't had too many pitfalls in quality that infuriated me. Actually, I take that back. There was a few films that truly disappointed me, pissed me off and 1 film that I absolutely despised. That's right people, its time for my pick for the worst films of 2022. Now you may not agree with me on some of them and that's okay. All film is subjective and you can have your opinions, but these are mine. If you want a more detailed review of each film listed, then simply click the title of each film. So, lets get this over.

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness: I wouldn't say this was the worst of the year, but more of a disappointment.  I happened to like that this was basically an Evil Dead version of the titular character, but I thought it was so inconsistent and lackluster in so many ways. If your gonna have a horror vibe then go all the way and get creepy with it. This film also introduced a new MCU character in the absolute worst way. America Chavez was absolutely useless for the majority of the film even though she has a decent backstory. The last fight in the film was just so bad and the story could've been over in 5 minutes with some simple logic. I wish this had tied into the animated series "What if?" in some sort of way. At least that Doctor Strange arc was more compelling than this.

Black Adam: I love DC. It is my comic book home over Marvel anyday and their heroes are just as important as their villains and anti heroes. When "Shazam!" was a success, it was only a matter of time before we were gonna get his darker counter part and I was excited until I saw the trailer. I knew something was off and I was right. I don't mind when a character's origin is altered a bit to fit with the times, but this was the most bland version ever. Dwayne Johnson can deliver a decent performance when he is challenged and he wasn't challenged at all in this film. This was one of his worst performances as he just delivers emotionless dialogue and floats around for the majority of the film with no sense of character development. The Justice Society of America was just slapped in for no reason and most of the team aside from Hawkman and Dr. Fate weren’t worthy of their names. Hey Black Adam, 2012 called. They want their villain plot and their shitty CGI back. It’s truly sad when the most memorable thing anyone will ever talk about is the post credit scene as being the best part of the film. You deserved better Henry Cavill.

Jurassic World: Dominion: Oh how this franchise has fallen so hard. It had a good, nostalgic and fun beginning that could've led to an amazing finale. What I was hoping to see is an actual world that's over run with dinosaurs. There was a short film released before the film called "Battle at Big Rock" and in that short you got a taste of what the film should’ve been. It had dinosaurs showing up in a camp site and wreaking havoc. It was tense and somewhat violent and everything that Dr. Ian Malcolm described it would be. What we got with this entry was a film about genetically enhanced locusts destroying crops. What the hell does that have to do with the dinosaurs you say? Nothing. How can you call yourself a Jurassic film when the dinosaurs aren't even the star of the film? Don't even get me started on legacy characters popping back up on screen just to have nothing to do but scream and get thrown around. What a disgrace to the franchise name.

Morbius: Do I need to really say anything about this dumpster fire of a movie? Visually the film was okay looking and I liked the ferocity of the character, but man was the rest of the film just horrible. This really didn't do anything to capture even the essence of the famous comic anti hero. This was just another day in the life of Jared Leto to be honest. The plot of the film was so bland, obvious and not even compelling enough to have a sense of fun. The only person I think was having fun as he just went for it in every scene, was Matt Smith. Listen Sony, I know you hold or have bought up all the rights to Spider-Man and all of his rogues, but for the love of all things holy, STOP making comic book movies like these. Outside of the Miles Morales animated films, you have consistently tainted each character with piss poor writing and god awful attempts to connect it to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. You even tried it here and it doesn't even make any sense! I hope you loose all the rights in the future so that the people over seeing the MCU can properly take care of these beloved characters. UGH!

And now we've come to it. The film that I consider to be the absolute worst of 2022 and the one film I hated the most is………..

Thor: Love and Thunder: If there's any character in the MCU that has had a full life experience and has become complete by Avengers: Endgame, its Thor. He is my favorite character of the MCU and it makes me so sick to my stomach to see what Kevin Feige and team have allowed Taika Waititi to do to him. Ragnarok was not the epic that it should've been, but it was tolerable once the Russo Brothers fixed the problems plaguing the character from that film. The character was ripped away from progress by Taika and tossed back into his "finding myself" story AGAIN when he already knew who he was! The constant usage of many OUTDATED memes including the stupid screaming goats, was so painful to witness. There was no sense of danger, no sense of compassion, no sense of urgency from any of the heroes. Jane Foster was given a story that could've been so heart wrenching, but it was met with god awful humor and didn't give the powerhouse dramatic actor that Natalie Portman is, anything to work with. Christian Bale was the best part of the film and he only got to shine in maybe 3 scenes that truly defined what this film should've been. This was an SNL sketch that was stretched too far and completely destroys any hope of saving the titular character for the future. When the news came that Taika wasn't gonna do anymore of these films, I rejoiced even though the massive damage had already been done. I truly and deeply hate this dog shit of a movie and in my opinion, it currently holds the number 1 spot of being the worst MCU film ever made.

And there it is ladies and gents! That is my list of the shiniest turds Hollywood crapped out in 2022. 2023 has already started and I hope that this year brings an even shorter list of stinkers. If you hated these films or liked my thoughts on them, let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

[jcmarchi]

What’s Old is New

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/whats-old-is-new/

What’s Old is New

I collect a bunch of links in a bookmarks folder. These are things I fully intend to read, and I do — eventually. It’s a good thing bookmarks are digital, otherwise, I’d need a bigger coffee table to separate them from the ever-growing pile of magazines.

The benefit of accumulating links is that the virtual pile starts revealing recurring themes. Two seemingly unrelated posts published a couple months apart may congeal and become more of a dialogue around a common topic.

I spent time pouring through a pile of links I’d accumulated over the past few weeks and noticed a couple of trending topics. No, that’s not me you’re smelling — there’s an aroma of nostalgia in the air., namely a newfound focus on learning web fundamentals and some love for manual deployments.

Web Developers, AI, and Development Fundamentals

Alvaro Montero:

Ultimately, it is not about AI replacing developers, but about developers adapting and evolving with the tools. The ability to learn, understand, and apply the fundamentals is essential because tools will only take you so far without the proper foundation.

ShopTalk 629: The Great Divide, Global Design + Web Components, and Job Titles

Chris and Dave sound off on The Great Divide in this episode and the rising value of shifting back towards fundamentals:

Dave: But I think what is maybe missing from that is there was a very big feeling of disenfranchisement from people who are good and awesome at CSS and JavaScript and HTML. But then were being… The market was shifting hard to these all-in JavaScript frameworks. And a lot of people were like, “I don’t… This is not what I signed up for.”

[…]

Dave: Yeah. I’m sure you can be like, “Eat shit. That’s how it is, kid.” But that’s also devaluing somebody’s skillset. And I think what the market is proving now is if you know JavaScript or know HTML, CSS, and regular JavaScript (non-framework JavaScript), you are once again more valuable because you understand how a line of CSS can replace 10,000 lines of JavaScript – or whatever it is.

Chris: Yeah. Maybe it’s coming back just a smidge–

Dave: A smidge.

Chris: –that kind of respecting the fundamental stuff because there’s been churn since then, since five years ago. Now it’s like these exclusively React developers we hired, how useful are they anymore? Were they a little too limited and fundamental people are knowing more? I don’t know. It’s hard to say that the job industry is back when it doesn’t quite feel that way to me.

Dave: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, who knows. I just think the value in knowing CSS and HTML, good HTML, are up more than they maybe were five years ago.

Just a Spec: HTML Finally Gets the Respect It Deserves

Jared and Ayush riffin’ on the first ever State of HTML survey, why we need it, and whether “State of…” surveys are representative of people who work with HTML.

[…] once you’ve learned about divs and H’s 1 through 6, what else is there to know? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Once again, we drafted Lea Verou to put her in-depth knowledge of the web platform to work and help us craft a survey that ended up reaching far beyond pure HTML to cover accessibility, web components, and much more.

[…]

You know, it’s perfectly fine to be an expert at HTML and CSS and know very little JavaScript. So, yeah, I think it’s important to note that as we talk about the survey, because the survey is a snapshot of just the people who know about the survey and answer the questions, right? It’s not necessarily representative of the broad swath of people around the world who have used HTML at all.

[…]

So yeah, a lot of interest in HTML. I’m talking about HTML. And yeah, in the conclusion, Lea Verou talks about we really do have this big need for more extensibility of HTML.

In a more recent episode:

I’m not surprised. I mean, when someone who’s only ever used React can see what HTML does, I think it’s usually a huge revelation to them.

[…]

It just blows their minds. And it’s kind of like you just don’t know what you’re missing out on up to a point. And there is a better world out there that a lot of folks just don’t know about.

[…]

I remember a while back seeing a post come through on social media somewhere, somebody’s saying, oh, I just tried working with HTML forms, just standard HTML forms the first time and getting it to submit stuff. And wait, it’s that easy?

Yeah, last year when I was mentoring a junior developer with the Railsworld conference website, she had come through Bootcamp and only ever done React, and I was showing her what a web component does, and she’s like, oh, man, this is so cool. Yeah, it’s the web platform.

Reckoning: Part 4 — The Way Out

Alex Russell in the last installment of an epic four-part series well worth your time to fully grasp the timeline, impact, and costs of modern JavsaScript frameworks to today’s development practices:

Never, ever hire for JavaScript framework skills. Instead, interview and hire only for fundamentals like web standards, accessibility, modern CSS, semantic HTML, and Web Components. This is doubly important if your system uses a framework.

Semi-Annual Reminder to Learn and Hire for Web Standards

Adrian Roselli:

This is a common cycle. Web developers tire of a particular technology — often considered the HTML killer when released — and come out of it calling for a focus on the native web platform. Then they decide to reinvent it yet again, but poorly.

There are many reasons companies won’t make deep HTML / CSS / ARIA / SVG knowledge core requirements. The simplest is the commoditization of the skills, partly because framework and library developers have looked down on the basics.

The anchor element

Heydon Pickering in a series dedicated to HTML elements, starting alphabetically with the good ol’ anchor <a>:

Sometimes, the <a> is referred to as a hyperlink, or simply a link. But it is not one of these and people who say it is one are technically wrong (the worst kind of wrong).

[…]

Web developers and content editors, the world over, make the mistake of not making text that describes a link actually go inside that link. This is collosally unfortunate, given it’s the main thing to get right when writing hypertext.

AI Myth: It lets me write code I can’t on my own

Chris Ferndandi:

At the risk of being old and out-of-touch: if you don’t know how to write some code, you probably shouldn’t use code that Chat GPT et al write for you.

[…]

It’s not bulletproof, but StackOverflow provides opportunities to learn and understand the code in a way that AI-generated code does not.

What Skills Should You Focus on as Junior Web Developer in 2024?

Frontend Masters:

Let’s not be old-man-shakes-fist-at-kids.gif about this, but learning the fundamentals of tech is demonstrateably useful. It’s true in basketball, it’s true for the piano, and it’s true in making websites. If you’re aiming at a long career in websites, the fundamentals are what powers it.

[…]

The point of the fundamentals is how long-lasting and transferrable the knowledge is. It will serve you well no matter what other technologies a job might have you using, or when the abstractions over them change, as they are want to do.

As long as we’re talking about learning the fundamentals…

The Basics

Oh yeah, and of course there’s this little online course I released this summer for learning HTML and CSS fundamentals that I describe like this:

The Basics is more for your clients who do not know how to update the website they paid you to make. Or the friend who’s learning but still keeps bugging you with questions about the things they’re reading. Or your mom, who still has no idea what it is you do for a living. It’s for those whom the entry points are vanishing. It’s for those who could simply sign up for a Squarespace account but want to understand the code it spits out so they have more control to make a site that uniquely reflects them.

Not all this nostalgia is reserved only for HTML and CSS, but for deploying code, too. A few recent posts riff on what it might look like to ship code with “buildless” or near “buildless” workflows.

Raw-Dogging Websites

Brad Frost:

It is extraordinarily liberating. Yes, there are some ergonomic inefficiencies, but at the end of the day it comes out in the wash. You might have to copy-and-paste some HTML, but in my experience I’d spend that much time or more debugging a broken build or dependency hell.

Going Buildless

Max Böck in a follow-up to Brad:

So, can we all ditch our build tools soon?

Probably not. I’d say for production-grade development, we’re not quite there yet. Performance tradeoffs are a big part of it, but there are lots of other small problems that you’d likely run into pretty soon once you hit a certain level of complexity.

For smaller sites or side projects though, I can imagine going the buildless route – just to see how far I can take it.

Manual ’till it hurts

Jeremy Keith in a follow-up to Max:

If you’re thinking that your next project couldn’t possibly be made without a build step, let me tell you about a phrase I first heard in the indie web community: “Manual ‘till it hurts”. It’s basically a two-step process:

Start doing what you need to do by hand.

When that becomes unworkable, introduce some kind of automation.

It’s remarkable how often you never reach step two.

I’m not saying premature optimisation is the root of all evil. I’m just saying it’s premature.

That’s it for this pile of links and good gosh my laptop feels lighter for it. Have you read other recent posts that tread similar ground? Share ’em in the comments.