ok this is a controversial opinion but like….. to me, henry spencer was actually not a shit father….. hear me out.
i understand that there’s a lot of subtleties that go into emotionally abusive parents, and i’m not trying to dismiss that, but honestly i just don’t see all the negativity that gets associated with him so often. also, between henry and madeleine, one parent actually seemed to be there when shawn was growing up, and it wasn’t his mother.
let’s look at shawn’s childhood. in all the flashbacks, henry was the one who volunteered at shawn’s school, who took him to movies and was around for all of his new hobbies and interests. he was the one making sure shawn did his homework and hung out with his friends and learned life lessons. granted, some of his teaching methods were not appropriate for a kid shawn’s age, so yes i can see where the criticisms come in and i agree with them. but he was so much more than his mistakes, he was the parent who cared.
when shawn grows up, yes there’s animosity between him and his father but to be quite honest, i’ve never met one person who doesn’t have unresolved daddy issues so that in itself doesn’t condemn henry in my mind. we see how much henry saved from shawn’s childhood and how much he remembers, and to me he actually does quite a bit to help shawn when he needs it. this is particularly telling in comparison to madeleine, who isn’t there to begin with and eventually we find out she really did leave her kid behind, and to me that does a lot more damage than any one thing henry did.
shawn and henry have issues, i won’t argue with that. but i really don’t think henry gets enough credit for the good he did and the way he tried when shawn got older. above all else, he was there and he was there for shawn, and that’s important. god knows it’s not everything, but it’s something.
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Buck showed an astronomical amount of growth in this episode, from his leadership skills (601) to his professionalism when delivering a baby (season 1) to his ability to separate himself and give the baby away to his real parents despite his own feelings (the entire donor arc). to say he hasn't shown any growth because he stayed in a relationship that, up until this point, and despite the audience being able to see thematic clues that it won't last in the long run, is very new and despite the one hiccup that got resolved with a genuine apology he has not had any reason to turn away from, is a disservice to his character and also just. unfair
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when it comes down to it, however much i think about eiffel's memory, whatever my reasoning might be, i think there's a much simpler core explanation for why i feel the way i do. i've said before that, if eiffel did regain his memory, i would want it to happen through 'an eiffel version of change of mind' i.e. a personal inner journey where the narrative he tells himself amounts to some greater reminder, self-confrontation, and self-realization. and that's just it:
eiffel regaining his memory wouldn't be a cop out to me for the same reason that lovelace not actually dying isn't a cop out: it's not just a story beat, it's a catalyst for character development & a better understanding of lovelace as a person. eiffel has spent his whole life trying not to be the person he is, and i just don't feel wolf 359 is the type of story to let him off the hook for that, when the ending is as much about accountability (to ourselves and to others and all the ways those responsibilities overlap) as it is about hope. i think there are ways you could argue that eiffel can still be eiffel without regaining his memory, but i think i've convinced myself that the symbolic resurrection / self-confrontation and acceptance of all the people he's been in the past, in order to move forward, is the more compelling option, especially for what it parallels, and the "eiffel is still eiffel" part is non-negotiable. it doesn't even feel like a question to me.
(and it makes the most sense to me in the context of eiffel's survivor's guilt - "of course i was fine. the driver's always fine." - and tendency towards a type of self-sacrifice and self-punishment that the show ultimately denies him / that doesn't address his real problem. he thinks sacrificing himself for the people he cares about will make up for something, but it won't. having him make that sacrifice and then keep living and keep being doug eiffel, with everything that means, feels like the natural extension of constructive criticism.)
in another story, or in a more theoretical context, there are all kinds of questions you could ask about whether eiffel's memory loss means he's a different person now, but in this case... i think it's better understood in narrative terms and what it represents for him as a character than any broader philosophical conclusion about the nature of the self and human consciousness. (and it is in no way as absolute as people sometimes behave like it is, considering he still has a concept of, like... everything. but that's a whole other topic of discussion.) most importantly, i just don't believe wolf 359 is a story about ideas as much as it is a story about people, these people, and in order to (hypothetically) continue to tell a story about doug eiffel, well. he has to still be doug eiffel. one way or another.
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🥹😭🤧 Park Seong Hwa, the man that you are ❤️
How can one person have such beautiful words to say to people he hasn't even met yet and still be so genuine and caring towards? 😭🤧 they captioned the letter with the opening line of 'To everyone I love,' and i started bawling at that but then reading the actual thing I lost any sense of composure because he is so KIND MAN 😭
But seeing you cheering up after being comforted by me before, smiling brightly at trivial stories, wondering about my day, worrying about my well-being, and giving me love for no reason as if it was natural, ATINY, I will bring happiness to your life. I'm so happy that I can do it. Maybe my greatest gift is you.
READ THAT LINE AGAIN 😭 TELL ME YOURE NOT GETTING THE FLIPPING TISSUES OUT NOW 😭 My heart is so warm rn
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love the kiddads bc i can project such weird niche shit onto all of them. anyway welcome to my ted talk on how sparrow is cannonically transfem but doesn’t ever really Come Out(tm) because she’s made a pro/con chart and it simply did not rank above her desire to conform and to mirror lark and to fix what she started in re: the doodler
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"Argh, I'm so annoyed! I'm seriously so annoyed!"
Man I am cutting it close but here it is!!!! Happy birthday Rin and Len!!!!!
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not gonna lie the idea of an oc incarnation is extra appealing because, at least to me, 13-14-15 seem to have this tangible character continuation whereas 12 feels so isolated at times so I'd love to have a 13 that's a more direct continuation
But to loop back to the topic of 'voice', trying to think of actors that feel right seems borderline impossible
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