#legit it's playing the role of 'door guardian'.

[nagalias-mindscape]

Sis: You get stat bonuses from the things you're putting back together?

Me: Relics. And only once I put them in my workshop, yeah.

Sis: Is it worth it?

(No relics -> with relics -> what relics I currently have)

Me: ... Yesno.

[krispydefendorpolice]

Once Upon A Miraculous - Part 2

Ok before we even get into the story here’s yet another warning to think twice before you continue. Jason dies. He dies in a gruesome, traumatizing event and even though I think I went over it very lightly I still think it’s pretty fucking graphic. I’m the writer and I. Had. To. Fucking. Stop. And take a break before I could continue with the story.

Violence and the results it can have on the body ahead. Madness from the pit and angst from hurt feeling of being replaced ahead. For the last time. You’ve all been warned so read at your own risk.

I’m going to trust that you all know your headspace well enough and for those that choose to read anyways? Thank you for going on this journey with me. I hope the falls between here and the end are worth the river journey and the lake we reach at the end (yes those are f*ing metaphors. I’m feeling philosophical at the moment)

Previous Masterpost list

————————————

“It’s me Nettie. I’m alive”

****************************

Jason was 14 years old when he met the Batman. He came across an unwatched batmobile. The tires on it could be sold for more than the average car and he had the tools on him.

One last check and he got to work. He was already thinking about the things he could buy for himself and his street siblings that he forgot the number one rule. Always keep a lookout.

The Batman caught him red handed with three wheels off and the fourth half done. After being forced to return the wheels to the car Jason was taken to the underground batcave. He met Alfred and the unmasked Batman. Bruce “fucking billionaire” Wayne.

Less than a month later he’s living in the manor and has been “adopted”. He doesn’t trust it. Rich men don’t want son’s and there are too many kids with stories about the horrors that “nice family’s” hide behind closed doors. But he’s got a roof over his head and food in his stomach. If Wayne thinks that will be enough to buy him he’s going to find out how wrong he was.

Jason starts small at first. If he can just get the man angry enough to throw him out he won’t have to worry about being brought back. Setting all the alarms in the house and making them unfixable was a bit of a challenge. Seeing Bruce’s face when he changed the passwords was brilliant.

It continued that way for a few months until Bruce finally decided if Jason was gonna be a little shit he could learn to fight better instead. Jason decided that if he was going to learn to fight he would take over the abandoned Robin role too.

Dick was not happy. The first time Jason got to meet the man was after he was seen as Robin. He came to the manor and yelled at Bruce, saying he had no right to give his costume and name to someone else. Jason listened from the second story.

As angry as the two men got neither came to blows over it. Dick ended the fight by storming out and he put the older hero on radio silence for months after but neither had any injuries from their disagreement. If Jason had ever even looked at his old man funny as a kid he would have a black eye and welts on his back to show for it.

Maybe Bruce could be trusted after all?

****************************

At 15 years old Bruce is engaged to Selina Kyle. Their on again off again thing as hero and thief where they danced around each other had been driving Jason and Alfred batty. It was nice to see them actually settle into their thing as each challenged the other and kept them on their toes.

When Selina said she was going to be spending the summer with the daughter of an old schoolmate of hers Jason didn’t think much of it. He knew she had a legit degree she used to assess the potential spoils of her criminal activities.

He arrived at Wayne Enterprises a little early for their lunch meeting. Bruce had told him they’d meet in the lobby so after greeting the receptionists he looked for a place to sit. In one of the chairs facing the doors a small girl looked up at the windows before going back to her book and writing something. No she was probably drawing with long pencil strokes like that.

Curious he walked over to see if he could look at her drawing. He could see what looked like an image of the stained glass windows on the page but the lines through them gave it a softer, almost flowing shape. Which was weird cause glass wouldn’t follow those lines.

“What are you drawing?” He found himself asking her.

She jumped so he’d obviously surprised her. His thoughts were captured by her bright blue eyes. In the light coming from those stained glass windows she’d been admiring they almost seemed to glow.

She said she was designing a dress while she waited for her guardian and the fiancé to return. This must be Selina’s friends daughter.

Lunch was a fun affair where the girl shared she would be designing costumes for Jagged stone to wear during his concert tour this summer. She would stay with Selina in Gotham from Monday to Thursday while she designed and created clothes she would fly to whatever city Jagged was playing in from Thursday to Sunday to be on hand during the concerts for any costume repairs that would be needed.

Bruce volunteered Jason to show Marinette around the city since it wouldn’t be safe for her to be alone. Jason agrees because it’s summer break and he likes the Marinette he talked stained glass windows with and wonders what other beauty she will see in his dark city.

**

He is breathless by the beauty she sees all around her. The joy and happiness she shines as easily as she breathes. Everyone she meets becomes a new friend. Even the tamer of the Rogues and the Siren’s who meet her are enthralled by her smile and her charm.

Kissing her was a completely spontaneous action. He had thought about it for weeks by then but she had said there was a guy back home she sort of still had a crush on though she wasn’t happy with how they wanted to deal with the liar situation. So he was resigned to keeping his budding feelings to himself so that he could see her happy.

It had been the night of the last concert. Jagged had Marinette come on stage where he officially introduced her as his designer and the creator of all the tour costumes to the world. She had beamed with a smile so wide that when she threw herself into Jason’s arms after walking off stage he had just pulled back and placed a kiss on her lips.

He froze when he realized what he did. Marinette had stood on her tiptoe to start their second kiss.

For a week they were blissfully happy and free with their affection. Multiple paparazzi got pictures of them holding hands, kissing each other or just cuddling when they were waiting. Jasonette and the Sunshine of Gotham blew up on social media.

Saying goodbye to her was a really hard thing to do. So Jason went shopping for something he could give her to remember him by. They had decided they would try a long distance thing but he was afraid it wouldn’t be enough. If they did fall apart from distance he wanted something she could use to always fondly remember the summer fling they had.

It was perfect. He knew it might be impractical but he was convinced that it would be the perfect gift for her someday.

************************

They made it work. They had talked everyday and he spent every chance he could in France with her. He met her parents and they met Bruce as well. Marinette had her school situation resolved following her return.

He was proud of her for sticking up for herself when all her classmates seemed ready to abandon the liar just because Marinette had a connection they could use again. Nathaniel, Rose and Juleka were all artsy like Marinette and he could see how their creative energies inspired each other and themselves.

He was a week away from his departure to spend the summer in France with Marinette and her family when it happened. A false lead led to his capture by the Joker.

(Begin Angst)

The first break hurt but it was bearable. He had broken bones before. His bio dad had broken them frequently when he was still alive. The fifth hurt as bad. He also had a concussion and several burns at that time as well.

What felt like days, weeks, years... minutes?, passed in a haze as he jerked with every new hit. He was a mess from vomit, blood, piss and shit when his body couldn’t follow his commands any longer.

He held to the belief that Batman would come for him. That his father could still save him.

When the Joker left, Jason was lying on the concrete floor looking at the bomb countdown. He knew he had to get out of there, he pushed his battered body past the point he could feel pain and struggled to the door. He pulled on it but it wouldn’t open. The rattle of chains on the other side told him why.

He collapsed to the floor, tears streaming as he watched the numbers countdown.

10, 9, 8...

I’m sorry Alfred.

7, 6, 5,...

I’m sorry Bruce.

4, 3,...

I’m sorry Nettie.

2, 1,

I love...

(End Angst)

He was only 16. He would never see 17.

***************************

It was dark. It was small. It was hard to breathe. He was in some kind of box. He screamed and hit the walls around him trying to get out, trying to find some air.

It surprised him when cold pieces fell from above him. It had a new smell. He focused his determination on that spot. More of the new thing came down into his cage. He pushed it away from him and continued. There. Briefly a breath of clean, fresh air.

With new determination he pushed harder towards the life giving air. He was able to pull his head and shoulders out of the box. He rested for a moment swallowing greedy gulps of air into his starved lungs. When he was able to continue he pulled himself from the ground and looked around. As far as his eye could see were stones standing from the ground around him and beyond those trees and underbrush fading into shadows.

He picked a direction at random and began to walk.

**

It was familiar. Grab an item, run. The actions came without conscious memory. The streets were cold but he was big enough to scare off the worst of the predators. There were a few small people, kids, that came to him for protection from the bigger people. He did what he could but it never seemed to be enough he thought, as he stood over another small, broken body.

“I can give you a way to protect them.”

He looked up. She was beautiful but her eyes were cold. Empty and unfeeling. But she had promised to give him a way to protect the little ones. He was willing to try anything for that power.

What was his name? How old was he? He didn’t know.

****************************************

Jason.

He remembered his name as he lunged from the sickly green waters that Talia had led him to. He remembered Bruce, his father, but he didn’t save him from the Joker. He remembered the Jokers laughter ringing in his ears as he stood over another broken child on the streets. And the new shadow following the shape of the Batman when he was an amnesiac wandering the streets of Gotham.

He had been REPLACED!! He fumed. The anger and resentment over Bruces inability to save him, to avenge him and his replacing him as if Jason meant nothing, festered and boiled in his mind.

When he left the League of Shadows his only plan was to go back to Gotham and get revenge for his own death and to hurt his so called father as badly as he could. If Jason meant so little to him then he would show how little Bruce meant to him.

**

(Mild violence ahead)

Their first reunion was in a fight over drug dealers selling heroin to kids. Jason looked directly at the bat, pulled his gun and shot the dealers in the forehead.

(Violence over)

“These are my streets now. I won’t tolerate kids getting hurt on my watch.”

He disappeared before Batman could restrain him.

For weeks they danced around. Batman trying to catch him and Jason using every trick he learned from the Bat himself to avoid him.

Blood flowed freely from the wicked and the corrupt. He was a villain in his own right bringing judgement and execution down upon the criminals of Gotham.

Batman always appealed to the better side of him, to stop his madness. Didn’t he understand that part died? The child that trusted in heroes to protect the innocent died at the hands of a monster. A monster that his father couldn’t chase away.

The RedHood was risen from the pits and unleashed upon the evil of Gotham.

He was 18 years old.

******************************

Months of their back and forth dynamic between RedHood and Batman passed. The Batman couldn’t arrest the RedHood but the RedHood couldn’t stop tweaking his cape to get a reaction.

Didn’t he care? Wasn’t he going to stop him? He was doing everything wrong so why wouldn’t Bruce do the same for him that he did for all the other criminals in Gotham?

It was when Jason had the Joker at the business end of a gun that he got his answers.

“Don’t do it Hood,” Bruce pleaded. “It will change you beyond what you can come back from if you do.”

“I’ve already killed, B,” his words caught as he gasped, fighting back tears of rage. “My hands are dripping in blood.

He laughed madly then, “‘Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him?’ Who knew that bitch knew what she was talking about.”

“It’s the madness that’s done it Hood. You’ve barely held control before. But you’re fighting the killing urge and directing it to those that do deserve it.”

“And yes,” he interrupted before Jason could argue, “no one deserves it more than Joker for what he’s done to you. But if you do it then the madness will win. Please I can’t lose my son again,” he begged.

“WHY DOES THAT MATTER NOW?!” Jason screamed. “He killed me. I was dead in the ground and you let him walk. WHY COULDN’T YOU KILL HIM?! AM I THAT MEANINGLESS TO YOU!?!!”

“I COULDN’T!” Bruce yelled back. “If I killed him I wouldn’t be able to stop killing. It wouldn’t just be the Joker that died, it would be every criminal in Gotham who dared step out of line. I wanted to. I still want to. He took my son from me but I know that once I start I won’t be able to stop. I’m sorry that I’m so weak, but I couldn’t.”

The Batman, no Bruce Wayne, stood before him, head bowed in defeat as he admitted to his greatest shame.

Jason looked away before dropping the gun and walking away. He knew Bruce would take the Joker back to Arkham so he just needed to get away and think.

**

They worked to build their relationships anew. He couldn’t be the son Bruce remembered anymore, too much had changed, but he could be the son he was today. He could do what he could for the Replacement and make sure the kid didn’t get himself killed on the streets. The girl that joined them got the same measure of protection though she was better able to defend herself.

When he finally let go of thoughts of revenge he could think about a time when a stray spark of living Sunshine found its way to cold, grey Gotham. He finally looked up news of Marinette to see how she was doing. He broke down and cried when her wedding announcement to the son of a Parisian fashion house was the first thing to pop up.

Selina, Bruce and Alfred all encouraged him to take a trip to France anyways to get some closure, to say goodbye. But he refused, the smile in her eyes as she looked at her new husband in the picture convinced him that she was happy. And that was all he ever wanted for her, even if it couldn’t be him giving the her the world.

He was 19 years old when he made peace with his past.

****************************

He was 20 years old when news of the villain Hawkmoth and his defeat hit the international press. He was livid to realize that his beloved Nettie had been in so much danger just living in a city that should have been safe. That the Justice League had done nothing when the citizens pleaded for help.

It felt like the period after his revival in the pit as he stormed the halls of the WatchTower. His vision was in various shades of red and his thoughts just kept turning back to how Marinette might have been killed in one of the villain’s monster attacks. Hell, she probably did die once or twice only to be revived by the hero’s magic.

If he ever got to meet LadyBug he would shower her in appreciation for defending the city his Nettie lived in.

The door crashed and nearly fell off the hinges when he threw it open and stormed through into the Leagues council room.

“RedHood,” Batman said calmly as he stalked up to the table.

Slamming his hands down and leaning over the collected heroes he asked what he’d wanted to since the news broke.

“Who. Screwed. Up?”

“When footage of the attacks first reached the League, investigations were done. No lasting damage was left from the attacks so it was written off as a publicity stunt and subsequent messages were ignored,” Batman explained. “It was a phone operator that fielded these calls. They went based off the assessment done by the League and deleted them.”

“She could have died B. I was dead and couldn’t do anything but you should have been keeping an eye on her. You know what she means to me.”

Batman nodded, “I should have. The messages never reached me but I should have been keeping a watch on her regardless of that.”

“You’re going to make amends to those heroes for ignoring them,” Jason stated. “All of you are,” he added, including the other heroes in the room in his statement.

“Yes,” Batman agreed.

Jason jerked his head in a nod and left the room. Going back to the cave where he can do his own check and make sure Marinette was safe.

********************************

It wasn’t just the League that failed Marinette. Jason knew he was as much to blame. If he had gone to Paris? If he had seen her? If he had told her he was alive? Would she have suffered under Hawkmoth? If, if, if.

News of the divorce of up and coming fashion designer MDC and the son of the fashion mogul and former villain Adrian Agreste hit airwaves like lightning. In the beginning people claimed it was Marinette who left because of Hawkmoth’s identity. Adrian was fast to shut that down and own that he was the one to ask for the divorce for personal reasons. With what seemed to be an amicable break up the world turned its attention to the next sound bite.

He’d failed her again. Jason just sat by his empty grave as he cried when he learns about it. He argues with Alfred and Selina when they bring up him visiting Paris afterwards. This time Bruce supports his decision. He doesn’t approve and lets Jason know it, but he supports him.

Returning to the cave after patrol, Jason was the last to arrive. He didn’t know why everyone was gathered by the computer so he went to take a look. He didn’t hear what Alfred said as he walked over. Momentarily blinded by the helmet as he removed it, he froze when he finally saw what, no who, had his family’s attention.

She had grown since their first meeting, not in height but in maturity. She had traded the fun pigtails for an elegant braid, and jeans for a sundress obviously of her own design.

“Hi, Monsieur Alfred introduced the others but I haven’t gotten your name yet. I am Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she introduces herself as if she were meeting a stranger for the first time.

It hurt his heart that she would do that with him, though he realizes why she did. She didn’t know. She couldn’t know that it was him under the mask.

The words wouldn’t come though when he tried to find them and tell her. He finally settled for showing her, hoping she would believe her eyes.

After she gasped in reaction to his reveal he thought maybe his approach was a bit boneheaded after all. Nothing to do but go forward from there though.

“It’s me Nettie. I’m alive.”

Marinette teared up but instead of breaking down and crying she ran to him and jumped into his arms. Burying her face in his neck she just murmured “You’re alive” over and over.

“Yeah,” he admitted. He held her as tightly as he dared. A little worried he might hurt her by accident.

When she pulled away he reluctantly let her go but it was worth it.

She gave him the biggest smile and he saw it again.

He was 21 years old and the sun was shining in cold, grey Gotham once more.

————————————

So I really got into the structure I used for the first chapter and exuded to use the same for this one. They end at different ages because Jason’s a few months older and this happened in that in between time (the real reason is sections were getting too busy so I add another year to his story. How do I rationalize it? Well birthdays are a thing so there you go).

I hope everyone enjoyed this wild ride. I do plan to do an epilogue chapter but that will have to wait until next weekend. Anyone have any ideas you can send it to me.

@pepelachanel @mellownieice @kris-pines04 @zebrabaker @two-faced-biatch @vixen-uchiha @mandy984 @shamefullove @mycupisbroken @dawnwave16 @abrx2002 @mochinek0 @tbehartoo @fertileleaf @thanks-captain-obvious @ravennightingaleandavatempus @hinata3487 @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @zalladane @dast218 @miraculous786 @18-fandoms-unite-08 @moonlightstar64 @mooshoon @ladybug182 @iggy-of-fans @legendaryneckjudgestudent @megawhitleycalderonpaganus @finallyaniguana @tog84 @mystery-5-5 @evil-elf16

[littlewickedwiccan]

For The Workers

Chapter 2 

Alfie x Reader

Warning: Swearing, obvs

Authors note: Wasn’t sure if I was going to carry this on but everyone was so lovely that I couldn’t not. Enjoy and let me know if you want to be tagged in future chapters! 

Chapter 1 || <--> || Chapter 3

Tags: @itsjusttaralove​

It had been a few weeks since you’d ended up as a spare part in Tommy’s wheeling and dealing with the man you now knew as Alfie Solomons. It had been a bumpy start to a new business relationship. Tommy was still unsure as to whether Alfie could be trusted and there had been some tension and a bit of backstabbing, but it seemed as though they’d finally finished pissing about and had reached an agreement. 

You’d secretly hoped that Tommy would need you by his side for a few more of those Camden visits, but things had gone back to normal and he’d been keeping you away. You’d convinced yourself that you’d just taken a shine to London, but there was a part of you that really wanted to get face to face with Alfie again. 

You were making your way through the paint chipped wooden door of the betting office when Polly strided past you, making her way up the stairs and shouting down to you over her shoulder.

“Tommy wants you in his office Y/N, off you pop” 

You let out a sigh, could you not get 5 minutes of rest before being summoned? Weaving your way through the tables and frantic betters you stepped through the glass paned door and into the dimly lit office. Tommy was sitting at his desk flicking through a pile of paper, an ashy cigarette hanging loosely from his lips. He didn’t look up, just gestured for you to take a seat. 

“What can I do for you Tom? I’ve got stuff to be getting on with.”

He removed the cigarette from his mouth, stubbing it out in his ashtray and leaning back in his chair.

“I’ve got a business proposition for you Y/N. One I think you’ll enjoy.” 

A business proposition? Tommy only ever involved you in this stuff when your presence benefitted the transaction. Usually you were used as a distraction or bait for attention starved gangsters, looking to impress you and get close by becoming an ally to Tommy Shelby. Yes he kept you out of the nitty gritty parts of Peaky business, but when he felt it was more than safe, he had no problem showing you off. 

“As you know, Shelby company is expanding into the import/export business and we have joined with the Jewish gangs down in Camden, so we can use their warehouses.” 

“Yes I’m aware” you said, trying to hide your excitement at the mention of Camden and hoping to hear Alfie’s name crop up. 

“Well, we’ve been trying to figure out how we can make the merger a little less conspicuous. We’ve pretty much got everything covered, but we think that a woman’s presence at the warehouse could be the ideal preventative measure to any unauthorised searches.” 

He’d been staring at the desk the whole time he’d been talking, but now his steely blue eyes moved to yours trying to gauge how much panic was rising within you. 

You’d expected the panic also, especially after your last visit to Camden, but you were surprised when you felt nothing. This was going to be a step into the lion’s den for you and yet you didn’t feel an ounce of worry or trepidation about it, you felt ready. 

“And you’d like that woman to be me is that it? I thought I was too delicate and respectable to get involved in such business Tom. What’s changed?” 

“We need someone that looks and acts respectable in order to make the cover convincing. You have no reputation, no criminal record, no black mark against your name. You’re the perfect person to make this merger look legit”  

He tapped out another white cigarette from its case, offering you one which you politely declined. He lit the tip and continued explaining his reasoning behind your new job role. 

“I’ve already arranged for you to be taken care of, you’ll have Peaky boys down there watching the apartment at all hours and Alfie has allocated a couple of his men to keep an eye on you in the warehouse.” 

“I haven’t even accepted yet…” 

“You hate it here Y/N, don’t pretend now that you’re not interested in getting into the city, you’re just like Ada.”

You and Ada were very similar in age and nature and although you didn’t share her political views, you were still as close as sisters. 

He was right, you did hate it in Birmingham, you’d originally run away from your home in Manchester and missed the hustle and bustle of city life. Of course you loved that you knew everyone, but that had its disadvantages sometimes, especially when it came to courting. 

“So what would my job be? Ornament? Play thing? Fashion accessory?” 

“I need you to keep track of the paperwork, admin mostly. Not that I don’t trust Alfie...” 

He tapped the ash off his cigarette and took another puff. 

“...but I don’t trust Alfie.” 

You’d always been good with numbers, but as a woman, there wasn’t much you could really do with that skill, other than illegal bookmaker of course, but even that role had been kept away from you over the years. 

“And Polly’s on board with this plan?” Your eyes narrowed at the thought of your temperamental guardian being OK with Tommy shipping you off to be around non-Peaky gangsters. 

Tommy stood now, making his way over to a dark corner and leaning on a tall filing cabinet, his jacket lifting just enough to give you a glimpse of his halter and pistol tucked away next to his chest.

“Well… I’d be lying if I said she was happy about it, but when is Pol ever happy about anything? Besides, it’s not full-time. You only need to be there three days a week, Curly will take you down and bring you back. I’ve sorted lodgings for you when you’re down there and you’ll be paid, obviously, for your service. Any questions?” 

“Yes actually, do I have a choice or has this been decided for me?” you said rolling your eyes and crossing your legs disapprovingly. You didn’t mind being taken care of and of course you were excited about being down in Camden more frequently, but being controlled and managed like just another employee didn’t sit well with you. 

Tommy stared down at you now, carefully taking a drag of smoke and removing the butt from his lips, using it to point at you. 

“No.”

And with that he lowered his head and started back to his desk chair, shifting his focus back to his papers and shuffling haphazardly. You took this as your queue to get the fuck out of his office and do as you were told. 

Standing up, you made sure to push the chair back under the desk just a little too hard, making his ink bottle shake and throw up tiny dots onto his desk. You were just about to close the office door behind you when he shouted over to you. 

“Say hello to Alfie for me.” You glanced back with your hand on the door handle to see him staring at you smiling. 

“I’m sure you’ll be happy to see him again.”

You kept your face straight and composed, turning back around and slamming the door loudly behind you, making the glass rattle and customers jump at the sudden disruption.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me know if you want to be tagged in chapter 3!

[blooddrop-palace]

I'd like to request #81 with Dante, however you want to do it!

Thank you for the submission! I stared at this, wondering how I should respond to it... and I think I’m in the mood for fluff! 

How about some Dante and Patty found-family-type fluff? With a dash of Nero. Post DMC4.

Just one thing: I don’t think Dante is going to be saying “please” in this situation.

81. “Please don’t make me choose.”

“Dante! Look at this! I spend just few days less here, and you still can’t even clean up after yourself!”

“Awe, Patty-cakes, the place is fine. You just focus on school and your after school activities. I’m taking care of myself just fine.”

“This is NOT fine! How can you think you can live like this? What are you going to do after I graduate school and go to uni? You aren’t expecting me to spend my breaks coming here just to clean, are you?”

There was a lot unspoken here. Patty knew that Dante’s living standards were simply low. They both knew that the cleaning was more for her joy, and it was her excuse to stop by the shop. Patty also knew that Dante did enjoy her company, so long as she remained wise to the times he actually warned her to not do something or not show up. Sometimes, when she received those instructions, she worried. The Legendary Devil Hunter, by her recognition, could still be mortal. (She will never forget the scare she had back then, the image of him impaled by his own sword upon a cross like a sacrifice was burned into her skull.)

However, Ever since he went on some weird mission to the island called Fortuna, she could tell that something had happened. Something good. It was subtle, but she could tell. 

It might have something to do with that white-haired older teen she met at his shop, once. (She didn’t dare ask exactly who Nero was. The way Dante interacted with him, she saw how dodgy he was being, but also how hopeful. Dante’s past was always vague to her, but she knew what it felt like to find family again. So she didn’t dare ruin what little bit of peace Dante had in his mysterious discovery.)

All of that aside, she didn’t necessarily come to the shop to clean today. 

“I am focusing on school and stuff. In fact, I wanted to tell you that our drama club will be performing our play next week! And I have a ticket for you, right here!” She slapped the envelope onto his desk. “So you’d better not lose this among your garbage!”

“A school play, huh?” He picked it up, expression somewhat unreadable as he gazed at it. 

“Starring yours truly! I expect you to show up!”

--------------------------

[Two hours before the play.]

Not all of his jobs came through Morrison. Plenty of Devil May Cry’s business came through the phone or through the door on their own. 

The only good thing about jobs coming through Morrison was that they tend to be legit, and more guaranteed pay. 

Supposing, of course, that he took the job to begin with. 

But here he was, behind his desk, arguing with a woman whose name he couldn’t be bothered to remember: “Look, woman. This is too short-notice. As you can see, I have somewhere to be.”

“But I need this warehouse cleared out. This should have been done days ago, if the other people I’ve hired weren’t so incompetent that they got themselves killed!”

“Not my problem.” Damn, and he took the effort to find nicer clothes for tonight, too. Patty wasn’t going to let him walk into her school in his usual getup, even if he thought he was being very fashionable. 

“I will pay you double what I offered to them!”

The devil within was feeling a fan to the flames of his irritation. His hissed: “Don’t make me choose.”

“What?” The woman gave him a brief wide-eyed stare, the context of such a phrase, combined with the (ironically truthful) rumors of his inhuman reputation, betrayed her fear of what her mind thought he meant. 

“I said, don’t make me have to choose between money, or going to my daughter’s high school play.” Oftentimes, the label was a convenient excuse. He’s used it more than once; but in some truth, it wasn’t just convenience. He would never say it in front of Patty, but he would protect her like it was his duty, to hell and back. 

He gave the woman a very level stare, standing behind his desk, knowing his height and his posture added to the message that she will lose this challenge. 

There was a long stretch of silence, before she stammered: “I, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize...”

“That I have other things booked into my calendar? Look, I’ll throw you one boon. That’s it.” He opened one of the drawers to his desk, rummaged through it for a business card, and slammed the drawer shut in a message of finality before tossing the card at her. “Call my associate, Nero. I make no promises on what his schedule looks like, but he’s got a fancy mobile setup and if you offer him that number you promised me and fork over gas money, you might have a deal. Now scram. I need to lock up.”

He’d rather Nero have the money, anyway. But tonight, he had a performance to watch.

--------------------------

“You actually made it.” Nina Lowell was pleasantly surprised. “And here I thought I was going to have to sit by an empty seat tonight. 

Nina and Dante had absolutely no relation to each other beyond one’s gratitude towards another, and their interactions were always based off of Patty’s well-being. Neutral, and friendly enough. 

“Wait, you’re not telling me...” He looked down at the ticket stub that told him of his seating number. 

“The front row seats are all reserved for parent-guardians of the students in the play. Naturally, Patty was entitled to two of those tickets to give away, just like the others with a role. And you can’t deny that you are a guardian of hers, can you?”

Huh. Well...

Guess some feelings were mutual.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

9x12: Guardians - Details

Okay, let's get down to details. This is gonna be long, so settle in.

***As always, spoilers abound for 9x12 in this post. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

Michonne/Negan/Alexandria:

I thought it was interesting that Father Gabriel, the Sirius character because of his eye, is the one pushing for the relay. I mentioned this at the beginning of the arc when he and Rosita were putting the relay together, but here we heard more talk about finding new people and how they shouldn't cut themselves off from the world. Again, it wouldn't say that if it weren't a foreshadow of them finding new people on the outside.

A big thing that was brought across to me in this episode is that Michonne is acting a lot like Rick used to. Not in a good way. She's being too protective and close minded and not willing to help other people. We saw Rick acting like that a lot in the past, and it was usually Michonne and Carl who convinced him that wasn't the right way to be. Now Michonne is being that way.

Siddique says, "Carol wouldn't ask for help a second time if it wasn't serious." Not only is that a serious/Sirius reference, but even the "the second time" bit plays into it. Sirius always returns for a second time, right? And it occurs to me that this is probably more about Carol than Michonne, but I think something about the fair will lead to Carol losing Ezekiel in the whole death fake out thing I talked about before. And hopefully that will lead to Beth as well. ;D

Something I think it's important to point out: A lot of people are really frustrated with Michonne and her attitude right now, but I thought it was important that she said she was willing to let the Kingdomers come live at Alexandria if they needed to. She said she’d open the doors to them, the same as they did to their friends at the Sanctuary. So, her only real hang-up is making the journey on the roads. She says the roads are broken and full of walkers. Honestly, I do understand her point of view. It’s still flawed of course. The communities really ought to be working together to clear those roads and make safe trade routes. But I don't think Michonne’s  point of view is quite as closed-minded as many in the fandom are making it out to be.

Later on, Michonne talks to Negan. He wants to help her with her leadership. We had callbacks to the "merciful Rick Grimes," which to me just points toward Carl's vision of the future. The last episode of S8 was called Mercy, after all.

I thought it was interesting that the Negan was referred to as a dog several times. He referred to himself that way and Michonne did as well. I'm not really sure what to make of this. I mean, obviously it's another Sirius reference, but I don't think Negan is going to leave and come back. I could be wrong about that, but I've never felt like that's where they're going with his arc.

Remember that a few weeks ago, smack in the middle of some heavy Still parallels, we saw dogs around him. So this could simply be yet another way of entangling him with Beth’s arc. Dogs = Sirius = Beth, and we’re seeing them around Negan because he’ll be involved in her return somehow.

Michonne realizes Judith is listening and confronts her about it later on. Judith once again gets in a decent verbal sucker punch by saying, "He listens to me. Not everyone does." Guilt trip much?

And then, again, we see how much Michonne has become like negative Rick. She says people don't really change, and then Judith says, "You did."

Talking about change can be a callback to Still and Beth talking about how she wishes she could just change. But in truth, this is been a show-wide theme for a while now. Back at the prison, Rick gave the speech about how he knew, “We can all change.” But then everything went wrong, Herschel died, and Rick didn't believe that for really long time. Michonne and Carl were the ones who always tried to get him to be more positive and have more faith.

Now, Michonne has sort of taken on Rick's pessimistic role, and Judith has taken on Carl's role of trying to convert her back to believing in people and having faith in the future. Kind of an interesting turning of the tables.

Later Michonne tells Aaron she won’t veto the Council’s vote. At this part, Aaron says, "I hope we don't regret this." Michonnee answers, "yeah. Me too." That’s a callback to S5 when TF first came to Alexandria. Michonne talked to Rick about how she thought they'd found a good place and Rick said, "I hope you're right about this." Michonne answered, "yeah. Me too."

We see the Alexandrians loading up wagons with things they are presumably taking to the fair. We saw lots of familiar symbols here, including pigs. Remember Beth and Daryl talked about pigs feet Alone. I don't know if I've actually posted about this, but @frangipanilove has an entire theory about how the pigs feet are actually part of the Sirius/Dog Star theme. That’s why I always point them out.

Rosita/FG/Siddiq/Eugene:

in this episode, Father Gabriel already knows about the baby. As I told my group Sunday night, I'm impressed with Rosita. To be honest, she's never been my favorite character. I certainly don't hate her or anything, but she's never struck me as the most emotionally mature person on the show. But I have to say, the way she's handling this whole baby quadrangle situation is very mature and I'm very impressed with her growth.

And I think that growth is legit because there was a part where she said to FG, “Me and Siddiq will figure out our shit…” That’s a direct callback to when Denise yelled at Rosita and Daryl about just before her death about figuring out their shit. So I think this is evidence that Rosita has grown a lot since then.

We had that funny scene where Eugene "helps" FG. This was obviously meant to be humorous with all of Eugene's technical charts and such, but we did see some interesting thematic things here as well. Eugene brought across the theme that all we have is time and love and the whole point of life is trying to bring about happiness. I thought it was interesting, given how often we lose characters in the show. We need to love people in the time that we have, because tomorrow is not promised. Eugene was very sweet in this episode.

In this scene, we also saw a callback to Grady in the form of some scissors. 

He also said the line about how "even with bad peepers you saw things I didn’t.” Because he's lost an eye, just like the dog in Alone, FG is the physical embodiment of the Sirius character. So referencing bad peepers (eyes) is kind of a blindness reference, but he also means seeing things with your heart, or in other ways than with your eyes. I'm not sure how or if that will pertain to Beth at all, but I thought it was an interesting theme.

This is kind of off-topic topic, but I also want to say how impressed I am with the way the show is handling this love quadrangle. I’ve wished before that they would do more jealousy story lines. Nothing huge that would be conflicts between main characters. Not even anything like the Rick/Shane/Lori situation. I just think it would be fun if every once in a while, some random new character came into Alexandria and thought Michonne was hot or something. Not that she would return it at all, but would be nice to see Rick punch someone in the face for that reason. I think most of us have had head canons about things like that with Beth and Daryl. And I've always thought the reason they didn't do this on the show is because that can very easily degrade into daytime soap opera level drama. TWD just isn’t that kind of show. It's about survival and much deeper and more transcendent themes than that.

Here, they’re doing not even just a triangle, but a quadrangle. But the way they’re handling it is really great. It doesn't feel way campy or like high school drama. I’m actually really enjoying this story line.

At the end, Rosita, Father Gabriel, and Siddique, all seem to be ready to sit down and figure out what they're going to do moving forward. Eugene watches with a smile. Poor Eugene. He needs a nice girl.

Daryl and Connie:

Okay, let's first appreciate the fact that the time for the romance to happen between the two of them has mostly passed. Yeah, they could end up alone in the woods at some point in the future. Maybe they will. They really weren’t together very long, though, and now Henry and Lydia are with them, which means they're no longer alone and the opportunity for the two of them to bond has largely passed. Did you see all that romance blooming in the woods? 

I mean, even I thought we would see more parallels to Beth between the two of them. We may see more next episode, but if we do, it won't be with the two of them being alone together.

When I saw this scene with them tracking in the woods, the first thing I thought of was Inmates. Part of it was just that visually it looked like Inmates, but Bethyl was tracking people from the prison in Inmates, and here, Daryl and Connie are tracking the Whisperers.

We have a shot of Connie looking in the dirt. 

She sees footprints, and again, that's like Inmates. I was also vaguely reminded of the dry riverbed in Them. I don't know but if that's what they were going for, especially because we don't see any Xs or dead frogs right here but it reminded me of the way they showed Sasha looking at the dry riverbed.

I couldn't help but be struck by how quickly Daryl can bond with someone. It doesn't happen very often because it's hard for him, but when it does happen, it happens quickly. So, here’s an exhaustive guide on how to bond with Daryl:

1)    Establish personal communication. Connie signaled that he needed to look at her when he talked so she could read his lips. That alone for Daryl establishes her weakness, how she overcomes it, and how he can help her overcome it. Instant bond.

2)    Showcase your walker-killing awesomeness. Connie uses her sling. Daryl was impressed. Instant bond.

3)    Yeah, that's it. Daryl now think cares what you think. You could tell he was a little embarrassed about the arrow breaking by the way he looked up self-consciously. He obviously cares what Connie thinks.

Honestly, I thought this was adorable. Connie laughed and it felt very much like when Denise offered him the oat cake and kind of laughed about his surliness. This feels very brotherly/sisterly to me. I really like the Connie/Daryl duo. But it's obviously platonic.

I originally thought that the arrow breaking was a callback to Still. Remember Daryl shot at a squirrel, but he missed and the arrow broke. I suppose we could still see it as that, but we also know that it wasn't intentional. Norman posted on his IG that the arrow breaking was actually a mess up, but he and Connie stayed in character and Angela thought it was cute so they kept it in. I’d like to think it’s the parallel they didn’t mean to include. Maybe Angela realized how well it worked as a Still callback and left it in.

Even without the arrow breaking, I still see something important here. It occurred to me that the arrow hit the walker in the head, and the dog retrieved it. So, even if the scene played out the way they meant to, we still have Dog (Sirius reference) retrieving an arrow from a head wound.

I also noticed the walker Daryl shot was missing an arm. I thought that was important, especially given the stuff we’ve seen with Daryl's arm. The S7, he wore the coat that had only one sleeve made out of flannel, which drew attention to his arm. Similarly, this season, the sleeve of that same arm is shorter than the other sleeve, again drawing attention to it. When I saw the armless walker, I thought, okay, the walker represents Daryl.

And THAT’S when it hit me that the two walkers that came toward Connie and Daryl were a male walker and female walker. Guys, this was an instance of the Bethyl side-by-side walker theme. Now, we didn't see an actual shot of the two walkers laying side-by-side after they got killed. It was subtler than that. But we had a male and female walker that were killed and would've been lying side-by-side on the ground.

I'm not sure exactly what this points to. Sure, it could foreshadow Connie's death, but even if she dies, I don't think that was the point of this. This has always been a Beth thing, and she hasn't been present most of the times they've used the symbol. It's just obvious from Inmates (so yet another Inmates reference here) and Always Accountable that it pertains to her. So, this could be a foreshadow of Beth showing up, but it could also be as simple as a way to show us that Connie and Daryl are being paralleled with Beth and Daryl here. Still, I was happy to see another instance of this theme.

And I can’t help but be reminded of an instance we saw of this in 5b. We saw the side by side theme with Ws in the walkers’ heads, just before the wolves showed up. So I feel like this is also a way to show similarities between the Wolves and the Whisperers.

One thing I alluded to in my First Thoughts post was actually pointed out by @thegloriouscollectorlady. While we can see a parallel to Beth and Daryl in this Connie and Daryl situation, we could equally see a parallel to Daryl and Carol in S5 going to look for Beth. When that episode aired, a certain ship insisted that Caryl would happen and this was when they were going to hook up. Nothing of the sort happened. Now we have everyone talking about Daryl and Connie. I don’t think that will happen either.

So, it occurred to me that they had kind of a funny incident with the dog, which reminded me of Daryl and Carol looking at picture and Daryl suggesting it looked like a dog had sat in paint and wiped his ass all over the canvas. I think that dog reference in Consumed was a foreshadow of the fact Beth is about to disappear. So, what does this dog reference foreshadow? I don't know, but I don't think either Connie or Daryl is going to disappear. It could be an Ezekiel thing again, or it could be a Beth thing. Just no way to know. But I will say that, as we have heavy Beth parallels here, and no Carol or Ezekiel anywhere around this, I kind think it’s more likely to be a Beth callback.

Last thing is that Connie already knows how to track. We saw a lot of tracking going on in this episode. It struck me that unlike Beth, Daryl doesn't really have to teach Connie anything. So again, maybe more like Carol in that way. Connie knows how to survive. She's figured out her slingshot and she really doesn't need any lessons from Daryl in tracking or killing walkers. 

So it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, this is a foreshadow of what Beth and Daryl’s relationship will be like when Beth returns. At that point, she’ll already know how to track, she’ll already know how to survive, and Daryl will be impressed with her. Just a thought.

Alpha/Henry/Lydia/Whisperers:

Let’s get to the heavy stuff. We learned a lot about Alpha, both by her actions and by her dialogue. We talked in my group about how we were mildly offended on Daryl's behalf that Alpha suggested he might have done something sexual to Lydia. I suppose it's a normal enough question for a parent to ask, given that Lydia was in the clutches of someone she didn't know for time. But we already know Alpha isn't terribly parental to Lydia to begin with.

I think this really shows Alpha’s mindset. She wanted specifically to know why Daryl was willing to fight to keep Lydia and then suggested that he had touched her. So, that association tells us she thinks the only reason someone would be willing to fight to keep Lydia is if there was a sexual element involved. She can’t imagine someone would want to keep a teenager safe out of basic goodness and decency.

She asked if there were any signs of trade, and Lydia said no. So she didn't tell her mom about the Kingdom or the other places that Henry mentioned.

I paid close attention to all of Alpha’s dialogue and something else struck me. Lydia asked, "Is that the only reason you came to get me? For information?" Alpha replies, "What a stupid question."

It reminded me of when Beth used the word stupid. She said of her own past optimism, "that's how incredibly stupid I am." Daryl assured her that she wasn't stupid. She was just normal and that's the way things were supposed to be. Maybe I'm reaching, but it just goes to show the difference between Alpha and Daryl. Alpha goes out of her way to make Lydia feel stupid rather than loved, where Daryl went out of his way to comfort Beth and let her know she was not stupid.

The yoyo. This was one of my favorite things in this episode. Why? Because it’s a significant symbol, but we haven't seen it very much. The less we see a symbol, the more significant it is when we do see it. The only other place I remember seeing the symbol was in 5x05 when Tara found the yoyo hidden in the backpack by the side of the river. It was when Glenn and Rosita were trying to filter water for everyone when the fire trucks broke down. You know, kinda on the way to Grady?

Here, we had almost the exact same scenario. Lydia randomly found a yoyo (hidden being a theme about Beth’s arc), and the Whisperers had stopped by the side of a river. This is a direct call back to 5x05. A yoyo, by definition, goes down and then comes back up, so I do think it's a resurrection symbol. All I could ever conclude about that yo-yo was that it foreshadowed Beth’s coming “death.” The yoyo suggested she would pop back up again somewhere.

Guys, we really haven't seen a yo-yo on the show that I'm aware of since then. So yeah, obviously I can talk about Beth symbolism all day and we've seen plenty of symbols throughout the seasons (6-8) that I've said pointed to her return, and we still haven’t seen her. But we literally haven't seen symbol since right before Coda. That makes me more hopeful than ever. They wouldn’t show it here for no reason. And just like in S5, the yoyo had absolutely no bearing on the plot. It's not like Lydia used it to get away or something. It was just random and has to be symbolic of something just around the corner.

I think it might also be important that it's blue. The yo-yo Tara found was yellow. That signified Beth apparent death, but her escape (think yellow polo shirt). The blue signifies something else. I'm not sure what, but @wdway also noticed a lot of characters in this episode wore dark blue. We batted ideas around about what the blue stands for, and haven’t really come to any concrete conclusions, but it's an interesting pattern to note.

*After double checking this I have to correct myself. Sorta. Michonne did find a yoyo in the van in 9x06. It was in the box with the little sheriff and some other things. She also grabbed some toilet paper right there. I don’t think that counts as it’s own instance, per se, because I think that, being the first episode of the new arc without Rick, it foreshadowed this yoyo with Lydia. But that just means something about this yoyo was important enough to foreshadow at the beginning of the arc. And given what else was in that box Michonne found, I think it’s safe to say this is associated with the emergence of the New Sheriff. Just saying. ;D*

Henry is captured by the whispers and it's obvious that Alpha knows Lydia is lying.

Let's talk about the Apple/Snow White reference. I sort of felt the same way about this as I did about the yo-yo. Obviously, we’ve seen plenty of apple references since Coda, so it's not the apple itself that makes me suspicious. It's the way they used it. Having Aaron talk about applesauce or Maggie eat apple pie are just very vague references to the apple theme. But those things in and of themselves don't illustrate the Snow White theme. So, what did? Beth's arm falling in the hallway of Grady, which is exactly what we see after Snow White ate the poisoned apple.

In this episode, Alpha gave Lydia an apple. The way she offered it to, looking as though trying to entice her to eat it, was pretty much a parody of the wicked queen/witch in Snow White trying to get her to eat the apple. Even the way Alpha watches Lydia take a bite...I had to laugh because it was so obviously an evil queen reference. Like they were trying to emulate the cartoon.

So again, I know this isn’t the only apple reference by far, but it’s the first direct Snow White reference I’ve noticed since Coda. I think we can draw a straight line between Beth's arm falling and this reference.

Lots of interesting symbols in the walker camp. I won't go into many of them because you already know what they mean. We saw a dead goat, which could be an extension of the ram symbol in 5B. Also a dead deer. Like with the Kingdom last episode, it's unclear hat this deer is tied to, but it's there. We also saw pigs on spits. It's also worth noting that they were drying skins. The question was posed in my group, how can they wear these skins without getting sick, given that they're coming off decomposing corpses? But they obviously use tannery to make them leathery and wearable for the long term.

When I watched Beta skin the walker (seriously disgusting) it occurred to me that this walker was female (pretty natural as he was looking for a new skin for Lydia), but also that it was tied to a tree. 

And that made me realize that Henry was also tied to a tree.

I think we can “tie” (see what I did there? ;D) this to the walker Aaron and Daryl found in 5x15. Why is that important? It's not just the Beth reference. It's that they gave us a foreshadow with that walker in 5x15 with the WOLVES and now here, with the Whisperers, the foreshadow might be fulfilled.

I've also talked briefly about how we see parallels between the Wolves and the Whispers. We’ve considered that maybe they’re part of the same group, or maybe they are the same group. But it's also possible we’re being too literal. The parallels might be only in the symbolism. Perhaps the wolves simply foreshadowed the Whisperers. Again, if that's the case, we had the wolves tying people to trees, including a blonde that looked like Beth. We haven't seen that exact thing with the Whisperers, but we've seen that they tie people to trees and they do it to walkers in order to take their faces. It feels like a direct fulfillment of that girl walker on the tree in 5x15 is coming.

We had the part where a male and female Whisperer challenge Alpha and she kills them. Yeah, AMC is obviously not skimping on gore this season.

We learn a lot about Alpha from this encounter. How ruthless she is, how gleefully she kills her own people, and a big part of why no one challenges her. It's not just her, but Beta they'll have to deal with. It’s happened before, as evidenced by her later telling Beta that it’s been years since anyone challenged her. Obviously, she killed them and remained the leader.

Here’s the thing: It occurred to me there must be a very specific reason they showed us this challenge to Alpha’s authority. They never did this, specifically, with Negan. We saw people disobey his rules and be punished for it, but we never actually saw anyone try to usurp his place as leader.

There must be a reason they're showing us this with Alpha. I think a lot of it is to establish her ruthlessness and the way she rules for people, but one line in particular jumped out at me. When the guy challenged her, she laughed at him and said, "and you think you are the one to replace me? To become the new Alpha?" The new alpha. That feels very significant to me. As though it's a thing and at some point, someone might become the new alpha. I’ll return to that in a minute.

On the subject of her brutality, I didn't catch the first time that the cord she used to decapitate a woman is actually worn around her wrist as a bracelet. So Alpha actually carries around a decapitation wire as though it's a piece of jewelry. Doesn’t she just seem sweet?

She gives the woman's head to the boyfriend and makes him hold it. Yeah, you really don't get any more sadistic than that. Just before stabbing him, she says something really interesting. She says, "Crying is weak."

We could relate that back to Beth, who also thought crying was weak. One of her signature lines was, "I don't cry anymore, Daryl." I always felt like she learned through the course of her arc that crying was not actually weak. That was a flawed way of thinking.

Now we have Alpha saying the same thing and killing people when they cry. I think this is more than just a parallel or anti-parallel. I think it’s a direct foreshadow of something.

Let’s skip ahead to when Alpha tells Beta the story about Lydia almost suffocating when she was three years old. First of all, it's obvious Alpha was a psycho even before the turn. She says she actually stood there and watched her daughter turn blue from not being able to breathe. Seriously? Yeah, awesome parenting skills. Afterward, she hit Lydia hard so she’d remember not to accidentally die again.

Something struck me as Alpha and Beta stood there talking. Here comes the super crazy theory.

It occurred to me that Alpha and Beta, especially with Alpha’s blonde walker skin, almost seem like a super-brutal version of Beth and Daryl. I suppose it's the way Beta is her right-hand guy and protects her. We’ve said before that if Beth were leading as the new sheriff, Daryl would be right there by her side. He’d kind of be her enforcer and other half. That’s a lot how Alpha and Beta's relationship is too, except obviously they’re way eviller and more sadistic than Beth and Daryl would be. And that's what sort of clinched some other thoughts I'd been having about this.

1. Beta has been set up as a Daryl foil. I called him a foil instead of anti-parallel because I’m making just a little bit of a differentiation here. Dwight was set up as a Daryl anti-parallel, but I feel like that situation was little bit different than Beta. Although Dwight was an obvious anti-parallel—he actually wore Daryl's clothes and drove Daryl's bike—but by the end of that arc, Dwight was pretty much a good guy. I don't think that will ever be the case with Beta. I don't see him and Alpha becoming part of TF in the way Dwight and Negan seem to be.

No, the last time I remember seeing something like this was in S4. I talked about it HERE in detail, but I felt like one of the Gov’s men, Mitch, had been sent to set up as an foil to Daryl. 

With the Gov being pitted against Rick, as his opposite, Mitch became Daryl's. He was the right-hand man, a super-tough survivor, and he didn't have sleeves. Hehe. So, while Rick and the Gov tussled at the prison, Daryl and Mitch came face-to-face, and Daryl killed Mitch.

I think something very similar is happening here. Beta and Daryl are being set up as foils. So, it's fitting that they’ll tussle in the next episode. And I feel like, when Beta dies, even if it's many seasons from now, it will probably be Daryl that kills him.

2. By extension, if Beta = Daryl, then Alpha must = Beth. And here's where things get complicated. I've already said that Alpha was a lot like Dawn, especially during the prisoner exchange. Then she says the thing about the “new Alpha.” As soon as I visualized that phrase in my head, I knew Beth has to be the New Alpha. It couldn't be anyone else. First of all, we had that cryptic line from Gorman at Grady about someday someone else being in charge who isn’t Dawn. We’ve always seen that as a foreshadow of Beth’s future leadership. Now Alpha is talking about a “new Alpha.”

The reason I'm saying it's complicated is because we also have the Carol aspect. I’ll talk about this in more detail later this week. It's one of those theories I wanted to get to last week and didn't. We have a very strong Carol/Beth entanglement thing going on here.

It's hard to say exactly what it means or how it will play out, but all three elements are present. Now, I do very strongly believe that were going to have a Carol/Alpha showdown. It will have everything to do with Henry and Lydia, and the differences in how they treat their children. I think that's going to be an awesome smack down and I’m excited for it. But I also don't really see Carol becoming the “new Alpha,” whatever that means. She barely wants to be queen and lead by Ezekiel’s side. She certainly wouldn't be volunteering to be a leader anywhere else.

And there's the Alpha/Beta dynamic, who I believe are foils to Beth and Daryl, so again it just makes sense that it would be Beth who’s the new alpha.

So, think about everything else I said. Alpha said crying is weak. Beth said crying was weak. The difference is that when Daryl cried, Beth hugged him, and when this guy cried over his dead girlfriend, Alpha stabbed him. Similarly, Beth said she was stupid, and Daryl assured her she wasn't. In this case, Alpha actually called Lydia stupid and was very derogatory to her about it. Are we seeing the anti-parallels?

We had Beta saying that if Lydia felt something for Henry or Hilltop, they needed to know about it. They’re obviously against genuine emotion is because they see it as a weakness. Conversely, Beth tried to draw the emotion out of Daryl and yelling at him for pretending he didn't feel anything.

We can see further parallels in how they dispose of their dead. The most obvious difference between the Whisperers and TF is that TF always bury their dead and treat them with a great deal of reverence and respect. On the other hand, the Whisperers feed their dead to the walkers. They have no respect for those they've lost, and no emotion for the people that cared about.

We can also relate this to Beth. In Alone, we learned had great reverence for the dead and was a big proponent of funerals. Alpha, on the other hand, doesn't bother to bury anybody. She merely casts the dead away and lets them be walker chow.

One more super obvious evidence that Alpha/Beta = Beth/Daryl? Check this out. My group noticed this from trailer even before the episode aired. 

Beta is wearing black and white ties, just like the ones we saw on Daryl in 5B.

Can I just say, I'm loving the Beta/Daryl match up. My man Norman and my man Ryan. Just totally loving it.

Let's talk briefly about Henry and Lydia. It took me a minute to figure out what Lydia's necklace was. It's the coin she found in the drunk shack. It has an H on it for Hilltop. 

She's obviously hanging on to that in a way that shows she's romantic or nostalgic about it. Henry smiles and obviously sees this is a good thing. Remember that finding that coin was a lot like Beth finding the spoon in S5, so the fact that Lydia is hanging onto it feels like a Beth parallel.

I also can't help but wonder if when we see Beth, we’ll see that she kept the spoon. I think we can also parallel it to Beth's heart necklace, which she wore the entire time she was with Daryl. It disappeared when she went to Grady and we never found out what happened to it.

Alpha tells Lydia to kill Henry and she obviously doesn't want to. She’s saved by the bell when walkers show up, keeping her from having to go through with it.

Alpha said to Lydia, "You weren't gone long. Maybe long enough." I think it was the “gone” that grabbed my attention. Beth is “just gone.” And it becomes an anti-parallel because Lydia wasn't gone long, but Beth has been.

I also liked that Lydia kind of stood up to her mother here. It wasn’t a massive stand or anything, but she said of her father, "Yeah, I know what happened to him, mother." 

So maybe we could see that as a parallel to Beth finally standing up to Dawn after realizing what was really going on.

Beth: “You let this happen, you’re letting it happen.”

Connie and Daryl showed up to get them, wearing walker masks. 

 Then Henry refused to leave without Lydia saying, "I'm not leaving you. I won't."

Obviously a direct parallel to Beth saying the same thing to Daryl.

It’s actually another anti-parallel (action-wise anyway) because Beth said she wouldn't leave Daryl and then they separated. Obviously that was a mistake. Here, Henry said that and, at least so far, he and Lydia haven’t separated. We’ll have to wait and see if they do in coming episodes.

One last word about theme. We saw a lot of people trying to survive rather than to live. Rather than doing the right thing, they're doing the thing that helps them to survive, and obviously that's a mistake. This mindset usually ends in disaster and the characters are going to have to learn to live again, rather than just surviving. So, a theme we’ve seen before, but still worth mentioning.

Okay, did I cramp your brain enough for today? Thoughts?

[winsister91]

The Angel and The Prophet

Summary: Reader is a prophet and has eyes for her trench coat wearing guardian angel

Characters: Castiel x Reader, Dean

Word Count: 2803

Warning: Language, Fluff, SMUT, bondage I guess, NSFW

A/N: @arcturuz requested Cas smut and here it is! Special thanks to @sofreddie for talking through the idea with me :) Quite nervous about this one, never written for Cas, so I hope I just do the angelic stud justice! Fingers crossed! Also! Absolutely mind blown by the reception on This Means War, thankyou so much for the love, it’s honestly made my weekend.

My Masterlist!

~ Cas and forever tags are open! ~

Castiel taglist from @spnfanficpond . Let me know if you want to be added/removed from future fics!

Dear Diary...or whatever

You're new so...Hi! Never written a diary before, but there are things going down in my life that has just GOT to be recorded.

Where do I start? This has been the craziest couple of months I'm not sure if I'm dreaming in all honesty. We'll go from the top I guess. I'm walking home from work one night, cutting through the park. This crazy storm just seems to start and it's like it's following me. I'm jogging along, very wary that I'm in a wide open space but I can see my apartment block so I just decide to make a break for it. Then I hear this loud crash and I black out. Somewhere in this black out I had a dream. Two guys, proper lumberjack lookalikes with all the plaid, driving along in this sweet ass car, talking some crazy shit. Demons and monsters and something about vessels for Michael and Lucifer? Stopping the apocalypse? Real bat shit stuff.

Fuck knows how much time had passed while I dreamt this, but next thing I know I'm in my bedroom at home, and there's this smoking hot guy in a trench coat just looking at me at the end of my bed! Naturally, I freaked out a little bit, for all I knew he could have been a crazed serial killer or something. Mid freak out he puts two fingers on my forehead and suddenly I'm as cool as cucumber. Not for long, however. He tells me his name is Castiel, and he's an “angel of the Lord, come to protect the new prophet”. I remember laughing, asking if he'd been on the old Mary J. God, angels and prophets? Me, a fucking prophet? I just work in a boring ass office then come home to my cats and play video games. Why on earth would I of all people be a prophet? Then he was able to tell me what I saw in my dream. That the two guys in it were called Sam and Dean Winchester, and they really were going to stop the apocalypse. I guess I must've looked pretty dumb founded because Cas then said something about me needing time to process and then VANISHED IN FRONT OF MY EYES. Dude. I started to wonder if I'd magically somehow ended up high on Mary J.

About a week or so passed, and I just assumed I must have had some...psychedelic episode or something. And we all know it's healthy to ignore stuff like that right? I'm playing on my PlayStation and this blistering headache attacks me. Vision goes all fuzzy and what do you know, I'm seeing Sam and Dean again. They've got this guy tied up to a chair and some real occult looking graffiti scrawled on the floor. They're asking him about a seal? But he's just laughing. Well, until they throw some water at him and his skin starts fizzing and burning. He struggles and screams and his eyes turn jet black. There's more talk and shouting and swearing but then the tall Winchester starts chanting some weird lingo. Black smoke starts pouring out of the tied up guys mouth and then he just slumps, completely lifeless.

A loud banging on my door snaps me back to reality. I'm shaking like crazy because I have no idea what the hell I just saw, but it starts to dawn on me that this shit might be legit.

I stupidly opened the door without looking through the peep hole first, and I'm thrown across my own living room. A woman stands in my doorway with the same jet black eyes. I'm hysterical, screaming and crying, but then Castiel appears in front of me. He's got this long silver looking blade in his hands and they start fighting. I scramble, grabbing my two cats and shut them in the bedroom, because they're my top priority of course. Somehow this demon gets hold of the dagger thing Cas is holding and it about to shove it straight into his beautiful face. I improvise and think of the Winchesters.

Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, the words just kind of came to me.

The scary lady turns and hisses at me, lunging for my throat and I squeal quite pathetically. Cas thankfully stepped in, placing his hand on her forehead and she screams while her entire face illuminates, then she slumps like the guy in the chair did.

So turns out that was a demon. I sat with Cas and had a long conversation this time. He told me that these dreams or visions I'm having are flickers of the future revealing themselves and I need to keep record of them for him, as they will prove useful for him and the Winchesters to succeed in stopping it. Again I'm flabbergasted, I'm playing a vital role in saving the world? That's pretty bad ass.

To trim the fat, Cas has been to see me a few times now over the last couple of months. He's really sweet once you get past the uh...lack of social skills? Once, he actually flew off to fetch me chocolate and ice cream when I was on my time of the month for crying out loud, how can you not love that? 

Sometimes when he shows up he's so bloodied and battered, tells me he's too weak to heal himself (because angels can freaking do that too it seems). So I just let him crash on the couch and attempt to patch him up. I'm no nurse, but I'm a master with band aids. He makes me laugh too, one time he showed up whilst I was playing Resident Evil and he asked where the zombies were because he had to get there immediately and “stop the Croatoan virus from spreading”.

The guy just does things to me though, I could quite happily get lost in those ocean blue eyes of his for days. The way he tilts his head slightly in curiosity when I say something too human for him. And boy I can only dream of what body hides under that trench coat, I've seen glimpses when patching him up, but I yearn for that full picture.

Okay I'm fully rambling now. I'm crushing on an angel. Wonderful. Coming to cinemas soon The Angel and The Prophet. I'm such an idiot.

Peace out.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

You sigh, getting up and stretching your arms as the diary lays open on the table in your front room. A draft blows through your hair and you hear that familiar flutter of wings.

“Cas!” you beam, as he appears at the door, “I knew you were coming tonight! Wait there!”

You run to the kitchen, grabbing a White Castle bag out of the fridge and warming up the burger inside in the microwave.

“So how are you doing?” You call back to him, getting no response. As soon as the microwave pings, you tentatively drop the burger on a plate and take it through to him.

“Cas,” you giggle seeing him still stood in the doorway, “You can sit down you know?”

“You said to wait here?” he questions with that trademark head tilt.

“Just sit,” you chuckle, “Got you your favourite! Had to warm it back up because I was little preemptive in buying it. Should still be good though?”

Cas takes the plate without a word and sinks his teeth into the piping hot burger. A smile spreads across his face.

“These make me very happy,” he states, turning to you with another smile in thanks.

“I know honey, enjoy,” you tap his knee playfully, “I'm afraid to say apart from seeing you were paying a visit tonight, I haven't had any further visions this time.”

Cas annihilates the burger in about three bites, he looks at you after a deep sigh of content and says, “That's unfortunate.”

“Sorry,” you shrug, “Gimme that plate.”

You drop the plate in the sink, you'll sort it later. It's quality Cas time right now. As you re-enter the room you see the angel's eyes glaring right at your open diary.

“CAS!?” you squeal, and you feel your cheeks turn rosy.

“Why do you say I am smoking hot?” he questions, his eyes not moving from the page, “I don't see any smoke? I actually find it a little cold down here on earth.”

“Cas just pass me the diary,” you avoid answering questions.

“Crushing on an angel?” he continues, “How can you be crushing me when you're not even touching me? Plus looking at your small frame, if you were to sit on top of me I don't think I would be crushed.”

“Don't talk about sitting on you,” you groan, pulling the diary away.

“Y/N,” he narrows his eyes puzzled, “Do you want me to take a photograph of what's under my coat? I can just take it off and show you instead if you like?”

“Cas you're fucking killing me,” you lean on the door frame for balance while your mind races. Castiel gets to his feet and walks over to you.

“Are you okay?” he asks looking into your eyes, “Your face has turned pink.”

“No I'm not okay,” you whine, taking deep breaths to slow your heart rate, you decide to spit it out, “I like you Cas.”

“I find you pleasant company also,” he nods in response.

“N-no Cas,” you stutter, “I like you.”

His face remains blank and you feel a twang of irritation in your guts because he's not understanding you. Fuck it, you think, understand this. You throw your arms around his neck and pull his lips to yours. You feel the hairs on your neck and arms stand on end. He's kissing you back, and your heart feels like thumping bass pedal. You give a playful nip to his bottom lip and let him go, you lock eyes, lost in the moment. Then he vanishes.

“Oh god dammit!!” you cry out.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

Dean is sprawled out on a motel bed, flicking through the free channels, bored at the lack of entertainment. He takes a sip of his beer and sighs, contemplating whether to just buy a sneaky porn channel on one of Sam's cards.

“Dean,” Cas appears.

“For crying out loud Cas!” he yells, near on jumping out of his skin, “...Is that lipstick on you?”

Cas wipes his face, a look of panic in his eyes, “I just went to see Y/N.”

“Oooooh,” Dean grins, “You been getting some human booty?” “S-she kissed me,” the angel stutters.

“And then?” Dean asks eagerly.

“I left,” Cas answers wide eyed.

“You left!? C'mon man!” Dean cries, “You don't just leave when a girl kisses you!”

“I panicked.”

“Cas, do you like her?”

“She is very beautiful, but...”

“You listen to me now,” Dean reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small square foil packet, “You're gonna take this, and get your feathery ass back there.”

“Dean I-”

“I get it, you're not savvy on what you need to do. I'll tell you exactly what to do, let's get creative with that grace of yours.”

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

You're pacing. You feel like an idiot. You just scared off your horrendously hot guardian angel. Perfect! You decide to just call it a night and try to forget this ever happened. You reach your bedroom and throw your shirt down onto your floordrobe. There's a flutter of wings.

“Y/N,” you hear that familiar deep voice.

You squeal, covering your naked breasts instinctively. You note a difference in his behavior however, eyes narrowed and full of hunger. It makes something deep down tremble in want. He strides over, taking you and lifting you up onto his hips.

“Hello,” he says, before resuming your previous kiss. His hands grip your ass tightly and he pushes you up against the wall. You can't help but gasp into his mouth in surprise.

“C-Cas,” you moan between kisses. He's being rough and passionate, holding on to a clump of your hair while he nips and bites down your neck. He turns around, now laying you onto the bed, placing your hands above your head before standing to remove his shirt. You motion to sit up to get a good view but you can't. Like an invisible force is holding your hands there, you struggle for a moment in confusion.

“Um...Cas?” you state to the ceiling. He comes into view, leaning over you. You see that torso of his and, like you suspected it was firm and nicely toned, you want to touch it but are still unable to move your hands. He leans down for another brief bite on your neck and you see a free hand of his do a quick swish in the air. Down go your pants. You jump in further surprise. The same hand hovers now just above the skin on your chest and he moves it slowly down your body, not touching your naked skin at all. As he moves you feel a surge of sensitivity shoot through you, causing you to arch your back and moan loudly in pleasure and shock. The hand moves back up you along with this pulse of energy and you gasp uncontrollably as your body gets hotter and wilder.

Is he....using his grace for foreplay? You think to yourself. His hand moves back down now, stopping to hover over your intimate zone, you fully cry out as the sensation their builds.

At last you feel physical contact as two of his finger slide into you. Scissoring and brushing at your sweet spot. Your body writhes and your hips buck completely out of your control. Every touch and movement is so intense it's like it has all been planned out in fine detail. His lips are on your neck once more, and his other hand has found your breast, gently teasing your nipples with small circles.

“F-fuck...” you moan, these actions sending tingles over you in all directions. Your eyes drift down. At some point, Cas has removed his pants. You're slightly disappointed you missed the strip show but you were otherwise occupied. You see his erect cock, condom in place and you swear your pussy tightens at the sight. Like he can read your mind, which he probably can, Cas hoists himself and lines up. Your hands are freed suddenly and you spring them into action, throwing your arms around his neck and pulling him down to kiss you, right in sync with his entry into you. He fills you right up and you find yourself gasping into his mouth once more. He seizes the opportunity to allow your tongues to meet.

You hear his breathing get deeper as he slowly pulls out and back in again, gentle but effective. You grind your hips in rhythm with him to heighten the sensation. He grunts and the sound takes you to another level. He picks up the pace, sensing your elevation in sensitivity. One of your hands is clutched tightly onto his shoulder and the other pulling at the sheets. You feel your legs begin to tremble and you bite your lip as you feel your core tightening. You hold your breath, determined not to give in so soon, you want this to last as long as possible. His pace picks up again and you clench your eyes shut, causing every touch to intensify once again. His hand leaves your breast and you take the moment to try and catch your breath, but it is short lived. A finger finds your clit, circling, stroking, pressing. Your back arches so harshly you almost sit up. You hold on, refusing to let go just yet, and you get tighter and tighter. Building higher and higher you start to feel light headed.

Cas moans and thrusts in hard and deep, and you feel his cock twitch as he cums. You can't help but release, unable to edge any longer. The orgasm ravages through you and you have zero control over the primal cries of pleasure escaping your mouth.

°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。°。

You feel dazed, unsure if this is really your life anymore. Prophets, demons, the apocalypse...and you just fucked an angel. Cas holds you close to him while you snuggle into his shoulder. Ultimate contentment.

“I need to go,” Cas whispers softly as you start to drift off.

“Must you?” you whimper, trying to give him your best puppy eyes.

“Just briefly,” Cas smiles, brushing hair out of your eyes, “I need to thank Dean for his advice.”

“Okay....wait, WHAT!?”

Tags! @manawhaat @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @notnaturalanahi @bkwrm523 @whisperandwhiskerburn @roxy-davenport @impala-dreamer @deathtonormalcy56 @samsgoddess @for-the-love-of-dean @jelly-beans-and-gstrings @fiveleaf @deansleather @whywhydoyouwantmetosaymyname @mrswhozeewhatsis @idreamofhazel @ilovedean-spn2 @babypieandwhiskey @wi-deangirl177 @deantbh @sinceriousleyamellpadalecki @deanwinchesterforpromqueen @chaos-and-the-calm67 @memariana91 @teamfreewill-imagine @chelsea-winchester @fandommaniacx @writingbeautifulmen @revwinchester @oldfashioncdvillain @your-average-distracted-waffle @drarinal1737 @lucibae-is-dancing-in-hell @castieltrash1 @supernaturallyobsessed @mysaintsinner @ohwritever @ruined-by-destiel @winchester-writes @deals-with-demons @maraisabellegrey @faith-in-dean @winchestersmolder @clueless-gold @melbelle45 @4401Inc @sis-tafics

[daleisgreat]

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Now it is time for the film I have been dreading to cover the most of the quadrilogy of Indiana Jones adventures and yes I am talking about Indy’s return to the big screen after a 19 year absence with 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (trailer). For new readers you can catch up on my posts for the original trilogy by clicking right here. When it originally released it was the only film in the franchise I vividly recall seeing in its entirety on release week. I recall walking out of that film irate because of a few gut-wrenching cornball scenes I will touch on later, and also because it featured Shia LaBeouf in one of the lead roles of the film fresh off his ultra-annoying performance in the first Transformers film. Needless to say I recall being furious anytime Shia’s mug appeared onscreen. This was 11 years ago however, so it was interesting revisiting this with a fresh set of eyes. Before I continue bear with me for a quick sidebar. I specifically recall Crystal Skull being the last film playing in what was once the featured theater in my town throughout my childhood. The good ‘ol Columbia 4 was the place where I waited in long lines for tickets to see family blockbusters like Home Alone, D2: The Mighty Ducks, Beethoven and Major League II. Later in the 90s a 10-plex opened, and in 2007 a 15-plex debuted which was the catalyst for the Columbia 4 turning into second run $1 theater a couple months later. For the next several months I caught at least two movies a month there and would chance anything for a $1 but felt something was amiss when the only movie they had playing on all four screens for its last three weeks was Crystal Skull until they finally locked their doors. I miss $1 movies and I hope we get another second-run theater again someday.

Back on track, Crystal Skull opens with Indy (Harrison Ford) and his colleague Mac (Ray Winstone) being thrown out of a trunk by the Soviet KGB. Yes, Indy is no longer squaring off against Nazis in the 1930s, but now communists in 1957. The standard thrilling opening chase sequence transpires with Indy evading peril once again, but with the Russians constantly on his tail. Not all is well for Indy back home as his latest capers leads to his dismissal from his longtime professor job at the university, but he has a hot tip for this film’s self-titled Magoffin, a legendary Crystal Skull. This leads Indy to meeting up with one Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) for more info on the Skull’s whereabouts, and that leads the pair to tracking down the kidnapped duo of Indy’s former pal, Dr. Oxley (John Hurt) and Mutt’s mom Marion (Karen Allen). The Russians are led by one Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett), who has some hinted psychological gifts early on, but that part of her persona is quickly brushed aside and she is essentially one of the weaker Indy antagonists. Mac is pretty amusing though with his constant double-crossing. Sadly, Sean Connery does not return to reprise his role as Indy Sr. as Connery stated in interviews at the time he was already a few years into his acting retirement and enjoying it too much to return to the screen, but there is a nice quick little tribute to him here. After re-watching the original trilogy and now having 100% reverence for Marion’s role in Raiders, I was thrilled to see her return this time around. Her chemistry with Ford does not miss a beat and the two shine together whenever they share a scene after Marion’s introduction halfway into the film. Some of my original qualms was Ford obviously being too old to make a return to all the swashbuckling action the series is famous for as he was 65 when Crystal Skull was filmed. Ford must have had some bizarre combination of good makeup and training, because he comes off as barely spry enough to pull off most of the vintage Indy acrobatics and I was further stunned to see the interviews claim how he did most of his own stunts to boot. Being many years removed from the dreck of the original Transformers trilogy also helped re-watching this as I was able to give Shia’s performance a now un-biased perspective and I was legit surprised LeBeouf actually pulled off a pretty good outing as the greaser, Mutt Williams.

Most of the requisite chases and swashbuckling action scenes of Crystal Skull hold up surprisingly well. As a matter of fact nearly halfway through the film I jotted down in my notes in all caps ‘THIS IS ACTUALLY PRETTY GOOD SO FAR.’ There are still a few instances that are big asterisks where Crystal Skull does not tiptoe over the wrong side of the line of groan-inducing, hokey moments, it straight up jumps the shark on them. The first instance is a jeep chase that was going well until monkeys and vine swinging gets involved and it instantly took me right out of the moment. The second moment was when Indy and crew all survive a mammoth waterfall drop and instantly all of them walk right out of it without even a scratch. I would be a fool at this point not to point out the elephant in the room in what is the most ridiculous jump the shark moment in cinema history….really….when Indiana…..I am not kidding….survives a nuclear blast on a testing ground by hiding in a lead-lined fridge and to rub salt in the wounds walking out of it WITHOUT EVEN A SCRATCH OR DROP OF BLOOD (SERIOUSLY, CLICK HERE TO RELIVE THIS ABSURDITY)!!! For that last instance it knocks the bonkers ball right out of the park and I can almost give Spielberg and Lucas a pass for being brazen enough to include it in here…almost.

My final gripe with Crystal Skull is how the final act plays out. I remembered enough bits and pieces of the original trilogy going into my first viewing of the fourth film to expect some supernatural material, and the inclusion of it is not what bothered me, but how it is pulled off is. When Spalko gets her just-deserts upon her inappropriate handling of the Crystal Skull, the way the CG-affair plays out is way too over the top to be taken seriously and get on the edge of my seat for like in previous films. This is also the first Indy film in the HD-era and Lucas already had the polarizing Star Wars prequels under his belt which featured the latest and greatest CG so it is baffling how silly the CG alien spectacle is executed. On the bonus features disc of the BluRay set there is only one extra specific to Crystal Skull and that is Making of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It runs just under a half hour and it does a good job interviewing Lucas, Spielberg and Ford on how the fourth film came to be and how it is an ode to the 1950s alien invasion B-movies like how the original trilogy was an homage to 1930s serials. I checked out the last several bonus features on the extras disc that run 10-12 minutes each to round off all the bonus content I had not seen yet. These shorter extras cover the filming locations, the leading women of the films, and post production. They are all well done, but of them the only one I would recommend would be the extra containing excerpts from a panel interviewing the three lead women of the movies that looked like it was shot shortly after The Last Crusade. The actresses are interviewed in the other bonuses, but it is nice to see them shine on their own here and give more insight and anecdotes than the other interviews.

For those interested in one more extra not contained on the set, the Cinemassacre crew did another recent video debating on whether Temple of Doom or Crystal Skull is the worst Indiana Jones film you can check out by clicking here. If it was not for these guys making these videos in the last few weeks it would have taken me several months to get around to covering the last two Indy films so kudos to them for driving me to get to them sooner than later. As far as which of those two films do I rank as the inferior Jones caper, I would have to rank Temple of Doom at the bottom. As I detailed in my entry for Temple of Doom, I had a lot of beef with it and the only parts I cared for were the opening sequence and the final mine-cart and rope-bridge scenes which only tallied up to about a quarter of the film. For Crystal Skull however my opinion of it turned a complete 180. Yes, I detailed four major gripes above with the film, but those are my only noteworthy problems and other aspects of the fourth film aged better than I could have imagined and I was on board for around two-thirds of the film! I still would rank it as only my third favorite of the series behind Raiders and Last Crusade being my standout favorite, but Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will likely be the only movie in the history of this blog that I had a positive 180 change of opinion on. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed Deck the Halls Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Guardians of the Galaxy Hercules: Reborn Hitman Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Man of Steel Man on the Moon Marine 3-6 Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Days of Future Past