#maybe if you watched more than two episodes you would see some things aren’t explained right away

[shellyseashell]

I literally can’t take any willow criticism seriously there’s so much sexism it’s almost funny

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

New Taskmaster lineup announcement! That’s fun, isn’t isn't it? Let’s go over some of the new people.

I first learned the news the day after I booked tickets to see Emma Sidi in Edinburgh this summer, so that was good timing. I booked those because I like her in some other people’s Radio 4 things, she was good in Pls Like, she does amusing characters on YouTube, I read some good things about her stand-up show this year for which she’s currently doing WIPs, and she hangs out with Rose Matafeo so she has to be all right, hasn’t she? Oh, and I’ve spent too much time trying to get my hypocrisy-averse brain to reconcile my dislike of the dominance of socio-economically elite institutions over the arts, with how many of my favourite comedians were in Cambridge Footlights. I’ve done the work of reconciling that already, I may as well use it a few more times.

I'm much less pleased about Jack Dee, but it could be worse. I’m pretty strongly biased against Jack Dee because one of the first things I ever saw him do was be on the QI Girls Versus Boys episode, which was the first episode of QI to ever feature two entire women. They had Ronnie Ancona on with Sandi Toksvig, and they discussed gender-based topics, and it was terrible. A lot of Fry-era QI was pretty bad; panel shows got a lot funnier when they invented diversity in 2014. Also Stephen Fry is annoying and Sandi Toksvig should be Prime Minister, but I’m getting off topic here.

The point is that the first time QI had two women on at a time, it was so they could make those two women listen to a bunch of gender essentialist bullshit that they used as answers to the gender-related questions. At one point, Stephen Fry explained that the gender pay gap isn’t real because women play fewer sets than men in professional tennis. One of the questions was “Why are there more men than women on panel shows?”, and I thought the answer would involve one of the 300 levels of casual and institutionalized sexism that women tripped over on the path from making jokes on the playground to getting spots on television comedy shows. Nope. The answer Stephen Fry was looking for was “according to an American study”, audiences don’t find women as funny as they find men.

Through this, Ronnie Ancona in particular did a great job of walking the very thin line between trying to point out a bit of the bullshit, while not being the "argumentative feminist", and being funny at the same time so she’s not a killjoy feminist proving that women aren’t funny. She did this funny riff about female comedians locked in a paddock, and then she went back and forth with Sandi a bit about it, in literally the first moment in QI history of passing the Bechdel test, and Sandi started to say something about how rare and nice it is that she gets to sit next to a woman on a panel show, and Jack Dee interrupted Sandi mid-sentence to ask whether the reason they don’t have more women on panel shows is “once you get them started they don’t shut up”.

Now, obviously he was joking. The gruff, curmudgeonly persona is his thing, and this was meant to be part of that. But he got in a lot of "joke" sexist comments throughout that whole episode, a lot more than anyone else did even though this episode was essentially dedicated to comedic sexism. It doesn’t help that the YouTube comments are full of people unironically agreeing with Jack Dee’s comment that women don't shut up.

I saw this relatively early in my time watching all the long-running panel shows, so that was the lens through which I saw all Jack Dee's other appearances, and maybe because of that bias, I noticed that he interrupted women a lot on panel shows, and picked a lot of inappropriate moments for sexist jokes, often aimed at women in general on an all-male episode, or at the only woman in an episode, always a woman who was used to always being the one woman on panels and hearing jokes like that constantly. But at least when most of the men made those jokes they’d have laugh to suggest they didn’t mean it, Jack Dee would just glare at the women like it was their fault. And yeah, being grumpy is his persona, but he would sometimes break that and have a laugh with the men. Never women.

I don’t even mind a good ironically sexist joke. Honestly, I probably mind them less than I should. I enjoy a lot of comedy where a better feminist than me would reasonably say “irony is not a good enough excuse for how offensive this is”. I know irony is used to mask genuine bigotry and I hate that, but also, if I’m convinced enough that the person isn’t masking genuine bigotry, I can laugh at some pretty harsh stuff. You need to build up some cred before I’ll trust you with sexist jokes. If Nish Kumar went on a panel show and said all women should shut the fuck up, I’ll be pretty sure he’s kidding and it’s all right. But if Jack Dee has enough feminist cred to make those jokes okay, then I sure haven’t heard about it.

Also, Jack Dee showed up on Catsdown a lot and did the grumpy thing similar to Sean Lock, but was much much less funny about it, and yet everyone else on the show treated him like he was hilarious, and that annoyed me. Also, after Sean died, Jack Dee sat in for him as a guest team captain once, doing his significantly less funny version of Sean Lock's shtick (yeah it was probably Jack Dee's shtick first, I don't care), and I had a strong visceral reaction of

All right, that is way more words that I’d meant to write about Jack Dee. Honestly, after all that, he’s probably not that bad. He was mildly funny in Josh Widdicombe’s mildly funny sitcom. I heard some of his recent stand-up recently, and a bit of it made me laugh. I just don’t like him because I saw him on too many panel shows.

Babatunde Aleshe I know almost nothing about, except that he’s supposed to have been particularly good on Off Menu once (I wouldn’t know, don’t do food shows), and sometimes he does reality TV. I’ve seen him on Catsdown and WILTY and Rhod Gilbert’s Growing Pains, where he was never particularly memorable, but he was probably fine. I hope he’s entertaining.

And then there’s seat number five, and that’s sure an interesting one. Of course I'd thought about Rosie Jones as a potential Taskmaster contestant before, but I didn't expect it to happen. Not that I didn't expect them to have any physically disabled people. They've had Jonnie Peacock and Lenny Rush and one of these days they’re definitely going to cast Adam Hills and he’ll win and then Australia will annoyingly pull ahead of Canada in the competition for who has the most UK Taskmaster champions (it’s currently 2-2). But all those people are able to do most of Taskmaster without disability accommodations. I didn't expect them to cast someone who'd need significant accommodation.

Having said that, I was very happy to see they’d proved me wrong and are, in fact, going to do that. I think she’ll be great. There are lots of ways to make Taskmaster accessible – just because I thought they wouldn’t do it doesn’t mean I thought they couldn’t.

Rosie Jones’ style of humour will go great on Taskmaster. Some recent seasons have lacked a bit of spark of contestant interaction in the studio, and Rosie Jones is always going after people. She won’t leave anyone alone, which I think will work great on the show. She can be the chaotic wildcard ball of energy that Taskmaster needs to really get going. And she is very funny. That���ll be great. I'm excited to see her get into it with Greg and Alex as well as the other contestants. And to see her yell at people when anything happens during tasks.

So that’s the new lineup announcement. Have I covered everyone? I think that's all the important stuff. It’s good to have the lineup out there.

[showtoonzfan]

—⚠️SPOILERS FOR THE LEAKED CLONE HIGH EPISODE!!! ⚠️—

Okay time to rant about the Clone high episode but in a way some of y’all aren’t expecting. This is just me but some people are painting the leaked new episode of Clone High to be WAAAY worse than it actually is. Like…good god some of y’all are overreacting, I’ve even seen people compare it to freaking Velma like GOD no. While I personally enjoyed the episode, I can see why people may not like it. A lot of people are bummed about Ghandi, the cancel culture stuff, and maybe the comedy, though for the comedy it’s mostly a hit or miss, but for me it was a hit. As for the Cancel culture stuff, it didn’t piss me off like a lot of people are because I honestly expected this. Clone high has always been known to poke fun at whatever was going on in the world at the time, so like…yeah of course they’d do an episode regarding that, and I personally liked the idea of a fish out of water concept since the clones have been frozen for 20 years. Some people were saying that Abe felt out of character and OOC, but honestly? Abe’s character has always been that he’s a stubborn loser who constantly gets into trouble, so him getting cancelled and fucking up everything he’s saying felt in character for me, it was one of the reasons I liked it so much because everyone felt in character, even if you could argue it wasn’t as good. I will say that Abe saying slurs felt incredibly forced to fit the plot, but he’s still a loser like he was in the original so I can’t be mad about it yet. I certainly wouldn’t call the episode perfect, but I overall enjoyed it.

The only two issues I had was Joan and JFK. These personal issues was more of a nitpick, but I was expecting…I dunno, more out them? Don’t get me wrong, I was a huge shipper of the two and I’m happy they’re together, but at the same time I find it weird that they’re both….okay with being a couple. I was surprised that Joan was 100% on board, I’d predicted that she would act like the night they spent together was a “one time thing” and that she needed to figure things out. The beginning of the episode even hints at the drama, but there was really no drama around the love triangle at all, aside from Abe moping. It just…felt like kind of a let down, but I think that’s just me because I was expecting more or something really big to kick off immediately. Joan as a whole however in this episode felt …..off to me, but I can’t really explain it. She just felt….off, like kinda out of character? I dunno I was expecting her to be against the popular kids since her character in the show was more being on “the good side” of things, like I would think she would go “I don’t need to be popular”- but she wasn’t bad or anything. I was always expecting her to be annoyed by JFK’s entire vulgar personality but she seemed to have no mind. As for JFK himself, I was surprised he wanted Joan to be his girlfriend, since he was known for being the ultimate fuck boy, going from one woman to the next. I had really hoped that their relationship would be more of a slow burn, rather than them getting together immediately in the very first episode, since JFK still has a lot to learn about relationships. The scene they shared outside of the prom to me opened a new door for a good character arc and relationship exploration, it was the scene that made me ship them, because there was so much potential for them to become a really good couple, so now that they just start off immediately being one, it felt VERY underwhelming to me. However, this is still the first episode, so for now I’ll wait to see what the writers do with these two. I could care less about Abe moping because all my homies hate Abe, but not in a bad way per say, to me, he’s enjoyable to watch, but we acknowledge that he’s a loser lol.

Meanwhile, Scudworth is the same, he’s hilarious as always and I get a kick out of watching him, and introducing a female boss who he has fallen in love with solely because she’s trying to kill him is funny to me. I have no idea if she’ll legitimately be a love interest or not, again we’ll have to see, but I will say that these new board of shadowy figures ain’t it. I miss the old iconic guys, particularly the main one with the soothing voice because he was iconic and funny. I guess it makes sense on why Scudworth didn’t unfreeze them since they had planned to kill him and take the clones away, but I do miss them and it kinda is a downgrade. Then there’s Ghandi, who we all miss but for the people demanding that he be brought back and that the show isn’t the same without him, y’all need to chill because I highly doubt this is in the creators control. I’m pretty sure if it was, Ghandi would be in the show, but they were kinda forced to take him out due to the controversy, so despite me missing him, I can see why it had to be done, and I don’t blame the show itself. As for the new clones and characters, I’ll have to get used to them and warm up to them, but I certainly wouldn’t call any of them “bad”. Again, this is merely the first episode, and unlike the majority of people on twitter right now, I want to give the show a chance and see how this all plays out until I say it’s “god awful” or act like it’s the worst thing in the world. I will say this however, to the people complaining about the gore and even the comedy style, do y’all know what show you’re watching? Like…this is Clone HIGH lol, I expected most of this to happen since I saw the original show, so I will be honest and say I don’t 100% know why everyone is so pressed about it. I get that people are maybe bummed about the whole “cancel culture” thing since nobody likes that, so I can see why but like I said, this is what Clone High is known for so I wasn’t taken aback.

With all that said, I’m 100% confident about the show and have high positive hopes for it. To me, the show hasn’t changed at all, the spirit of the original is still there, the characters for the most part still feel the same, and so does the humor. I think it’s way too early (LITERALLY since this got leaked) to say that the show shouldn’t have been rebooted or the show in general isn’t good and will be a lost cause. For now I think we’re off to a pretty okay start, and I’ll have to see more in the future to see where things go before I can say my full opinions on wether I think it’s good or not. Keep in mind these are all MY personal opinions on the show so far. Fill free to disagree with me. We all need to keep in mind that there’s always room for improvement however, because I will admit that I think it’s unfair that a lot of people are already saying the show is going to suck. We have no idea yet and we’ll just have to wait and see. Thank you for reading, and I personally can’t wait to see more Clone High!

[talenlee]

Talen Month 2024!

Welcome to Talen Month here on press dot invincible dot ink!

A pattern has formed, a groove has been worn, and I treat April as a month in which I’m going to focus on writing about indulgent, entirely self-serving nonsense. No topic is too niche, no character exploration too unnecessary, and no corner case complaint about some other nonsense is too specific for me to do it if it tickles me distinctly and doesn’t also fit better into another theme month.

Like, c’mon, there’s gotta be something for Dread Month and Tricks Month. October and August if you’re new here.

But what does this actually mean?

The whole question of making a blog which is literally just my own daily writing, and then having a month dedicated to talking about myself or my interests seems when viewed at arm’s length like nonsense. Everything on this blog is stuff I care about. I’m always going to talk about things as they relate to me, duh. That’s the whole point, I didn’t train myself to understand and deploy autoethnography relentlessly because I wanted to pretend I didn’t exist.

If you go back and read earlier parts of the blog, you can find my posts from when I was trying to position myself as a neutral observer of videogames, and even then I found the idea of it stifling. Early Game Pile entries would include a list of reasons I could imagine someone wanting to play a game, and of course, that list was going to be filtered through my imagination and opinion. On the one hand it’s not that hard to have some empathy for a potential or imagined reader, and what might help a game or piece of media interest them. It’s hard to have empathy for every possible reader, and that’s where we start to get into the shape of you – the reader – that is in my head.

In my mind, you’re probably queer. Not necessarily, but probably. You at least are adjacent to queer spaces, since you got to found me. I don’t have an assumption that you’re a boy or a girl, though I think I probably joke around as if you’re a girl or girlthing more likely than you are a boy. I think I do that because I don’t think it’s interesting to joke about my reader being a boy — everyone does that. It’s much funnier to — accurately or not! — crack jokes about not liking girly games like Bloodbourne and Dwarf Fortress.

You’re younger than me. You watch anime and you play videogames, but you don’t read as many books as you like. I think this because I think that I think of reading books as interesting and a way to broaden your horizons, but I also don’t read as many books as I’d like. Sometimes this is because my day can consist of choking through six dense chapters of four different books and sometimes it’s because it’s a lot easier to put the TV on and let twenty episodes of Bluey happen.

You’re more of a console gamer. I can talk to you about old PC games from the 1990s and I need to explain how they work or what life was like for people interested in that play space, because you don’t know what I’m talking about. Not a cruel thing or a ignorance thing – I don’t think less of you for not knowing, but I think it’s worth explaining it. I think that part of that is because I think it’s interesting. When I dig into how Commander Keen works, being able to explain how the EGA processor worked is really me teaching myself something I half-understand, and then share with you because I … I like talking about it?

I definitely think there are words and topics you’d rather I avoid. I think that you don’t like seeing me be mean to things, or about things. I think that you’d rather not see me using generative media for bumpers in my posts, and that you either don’t care about my using of alt text or you care about it in hypothetical. The fact I’m trying to get in the habit for it is something you probably think ‘oh, that’s nice, that’s a good habit’ and that’s the end of it. I think that if there are people reading this who benefit from good alt text, there aren’t many of you, maybe one or two. I also think that that one or two are worth doing a good job for, as a matter of principle. But I also think if I screw up, or my alt text is bad, I’m not going to get told about it.

I think you used to be on twitter.

I think you think I’m interesting, but not cool.

I think you think my writing is engaging, but not deeply affecting. I think you’re really glad to see stuff on a website that’s being made and maintained and not being used to advertise. I think that if I started promoting or doing calls to action, you’d find that unappealing. You wouldn’t necessarily hate me for it, but it would be something that you didn’t have to deal with here, previously, but now you do have to deal with it, and that’d be a bummer.

I also think there’s a good chance every single thing I’ve looked at and thought ‘wow this sucks’ is someone’s favourite thing. I think, if I rubbish an anime or a game, I have pretty good chance that you are either really relieved to see someone finally talk critically about it, or you’re super bummed to see someone you respected talking about something you love cruelly. I think this is part of why I keep a mix going on: I think that you might tolerate a few sassy posts about something you like, but if I let my natural impulse to complain overwhelm me, you’d have a blog that’s grumpy and mad for several days in a row and that might just be enough to make you give up on checking.

I don’t think you check. I think you’re either using an RSS reader because you’re smart and cool and better than me with computers, or you see my work linked other places. The idea that my blog lives in a space like someone’s daily webcomic link folder is kinda nice but I have no idea if anyone else even does those any more.

This is mostly just anxieties, of course. I’m concerned about being seen a particular way. I’m afraid of behaving in a way that’s too much. I don’t want to make you feel like you shouldn’t bother checking. I want to share things that are funny and exciting with you. I also want to get better at writing and part of that is forcing variety, because otherwise I will default to cliche phrases and reusing jokes from a more successful Adams, whether that’s Douglas (very good) or Scott (very bad).

This month, I’m going to try and talk to you with less of the anxiety. More willingness to talk about things I normally skirt around. And yes, that means I will probably spend a lot of words focusing on some extremely niche nonsense or maybe diving way too deep in something I think you’d find dull.

Sorry.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[glitchyko]

Hello, I'm a LMK fandom newbie, as in I stayed up until 5am binge-watching the show and hopped onto tumblr and ao3 for the fanart and fics before I finished S4 and got jumpscared by what I thought was spoilers only to proceed finishing the show and discovering those ideas are way too prevalent for them to end up...not in the show at all. So I'm wondering if there's like, some extra material I missed asides from the four seasons and specials, like. I would presume Macaque and Sun Wukong's backstory comes from The Actual Journey to the West the fandom decided to use because ain't nobody killing anybody here, JJK round two there for a minute and I was baffled...but I'm wondering where the other stuff comes from, there's so many characters I don't see in the show, I paused typing this for a minute to look up the origin of the Bai He stuff so I know that now lmao, but Princess Iron Fan and Macaque being siblings?? Ello? And I paused again while typing this because I was still baffled by the varying different "why did SWK kill MQ" takes that ain't no way that's all coming from a single story and apparently it was implied in S3 helloooooo 😭 fandom phenomenon of fanworks going so hard for no reason the expectations I built up on the final episode going "okay this is it, then I sleep, this has to be the one with the full flashback right...right?!" I think that's what fandom might've done with the side characters too lol.

Alright, so there’s a number of things to address here, but I will do my best to try and explain everything to the best of my ability-

So firstly, yes in JTTW, Sun Wukong kills Macaque, they weren’t sworn brothers or anything like that, they didn’t have any sort of relationship, Macaque swooped in, pretended to be Sun Wukong, fought Wukong a lot while literally everyone is trying to figure out who is the real one, but eventually Buddha exposes Macaque, and Wukong kills him. There is evidence to support that Wukong did kill Macaque in LMK as well, since in season 3 LBD says she brought Macaque back to the mortal realm, and Wukong and Macaque are shown to have fought, with Wukong coming out victorious, so it’s safe to assume yes, Wukong did kill Macaque in lmk as well, the reason behind why he did so is unknown currently, some people think it’s because Macaque attacked the gang in an attempt to save Wukong, but we don’t have a reason for it in the show, but I do hope we get one.

Regarding Princess Iron Fan and Macaque being siblings, that is just a headcanon the fandom made, at this point there’s nothing even implying such a thing in the show as far as I’m aware, I understand why you’d think that’s canon because when I first got into lmk, I thought that was true too. The lmk fandom does like to use characters that aren’t in show, but do appear in lmk Lego sets, such as Rumble and Savage, or characters from jttw, like Wukong’s four generals, Marshals Ma, Beng, Ba and Liu, for lmk fanfiction and au’s. Ultimately it does take some research to figure out what is actually canon, and what is just a fandom headcanon, a lot of side characters in lmk, like Jin and Yin, sadly don’t have a lot of chances to shine or do anything really noteworthy more than maybe once or twice, so we don’t get to really know too much about them, so we take what we can and add more to it, make our own interpretation and put our own spin on things.

I hope I was able to help clear up any confusion you might have, I’m sorry if I didn’t really help that much or if I missed anything or got something wrong, this is my first time being asked about something like this, but I hope that this helped, even just a little bit!

[cocoabubbelle]

Watching “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” (1969-1970 CBS) + Thoughts

Episode 22: Haunted House Hang Up

A headless man?

Shaggy can play the guitar, and Scooby drums.

Asha Shanks, a slouching big guy with a lantern, giving Scooby and Shaggy war flashbacks with the last big guy who held a lantern on their first meeting.

Headless Specter? Was the Dullahan too hard to pronounce??? (Dullahan = Headless Horseman monster from Irish folklore)

“The non-material embodiment or essence or organism that’s seen as a specter, wraith, or apparition has been scientifically proven to be a sheer myth. In other words, there’s no such thing as a ghost.” “Yeah, but does the ghost know that?” I now know why Velma wasn’t chosen to be part of Scooby Doo and the 13 Ghosts.

Floating candle! Will they actually explain it this time?

Cue Old-painting-of-an-older-person-but-if-you-look-away-for-a-moment-then-it-changes-in-a-creepy-way gag.

Is it just me or has the animation/design for the Scooby gang become significantly more wonky since they’ve entered the mansion?

We watch Headless Ghost using secret passageways to travel in the house. Seems interested in a jewelry box?

Shaggy pranking Scoob so that the poor dog accidentally volunteers to open the jewelry box for everyone. Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him for swiping Shaggy’s food from now on 😅

Bruh. Is it weird that when I saw a man’s head in the opened box, my first thought was “Oh, that is a nicely rendered head. Look at the details in the lines and values 🤩” , and then “Oh. That’s a HEAD?”

False alarm. ‘Tis a wooden dummy’s head.

“Aren’t you curious [about this mystery]?” “NOT ONE BIT.”

A random though popped into my mind. It is NOT CANON, but I wondered momentarily if Fred kept splitting the gang up the way he usually does because he’s always had some kind of crush on Daphne and was hoping to impress her. Occasionally he invited Velma so no one would notice, but all of them know but don’t want to embarrass him by pointing it out?

Velma shoves Shaggy and Scooby ahead of her into a dark room instead of going in first.

“I feel like I’ve been dipped in ink and let loose in a coal mine.”

Ah, the let’s-hold-hands-in-a-dark-room-so-we-don’t-lose-each-other-only-to-discover-we’ve-gained/lost-a-member-in-our-team-when-the-lights-are-on gag

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Animation is WONKY this episode.

Cue this episode’s chase scene’s theme song.

“Headless” Specter has to bend super down low to look at specific things bc the guy who made his own costume didn’t think to create incognito areas/fabric to see (and yes I’m saying he made his own costume bc I believe Trick or Treat, Scooby Doo to be part of a different canon universe than the series and the older movies, just like how I view the live action films, the live action series, and the other adaptations. I think some fans arguing over which versions of the Scooby Gang’s are the “true”/“actual”/“correct” interpretations of these characters are a tad silly because even the original show had trouble pinpointing their personalities at times. Have fun and be cool.)

I know it’s in the name of good fun and shenanigans, but seeing all of those books being shoved off the library bookshelf by Shelma and Scooby made the book lover in me wince.

Headless Specter loses whatever little dignity he thought he had by jumping on the bed and angrily bouncing and stomping on the “bodies” (actually pillows) of Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby. Wow, dude.

A spinning wheel also serves as a bicycle. Shenanigans.

The well that was shown earlier has a secret passage.

We finally see what Fraphne is up to, and lo and behold, they are actually looking for clues and being useful as opposed to the writers usually having no clue what to do with them when they split the gang up.

Animation Goof: Daphne’s eyebrows disappear until she speaks.

Oooh! A trapdoor.

“Let’s take a look and be careful.” Me: *immediately begins countdown.* “Whoops!!” Only two seconds for Danger-Prone Daphne to slip 😅

I accidentally paused to talk to someone, and I have to restrain myself from laughing at the horrible twisted wince/scowl face Daphne is making as she is talking. Not sure why the animators are doing more in-betweens here between poses when the earlier episodes were just fine without them. Can’t fault them too much for making an attempt though.

Methinks the artists didn’t want Velma getting hit when Fred and Daphne are about to chuck jars at her, Shag, and Scooby out of self-defense, as we see in previous episodes Shaggy usually gets throttled from a misunderstanding.

I vaguely remember a scene where Shaggy and Scooby accidentally chew on non-inflated balloons thinking they were treats when I was younger; didn’t realize it was from this episode.

Animation Goof: Shaggy’s eyebrows are too thick for any man to handle.

Don’t know why later adaptations dumb Freddy down; he’s just as smart as Velma. There’s room for multiple smart people who are knowledgeable in differing areas! This is why I ship Frelma *gets slapped*

Why on earth would you give a Scooby Snack to a Flytrap, Shaggy? That’s just asking for an early version of Little Shop of Horrors.

Where did the Headless Specter come from?

Show is inconsistent with Shaggy and Scooby’s weights.

No chickens were harmed in the making of this episode (I hope 😅)

Huh. The Headless Specter isn’t Asha Shanks. Also, Headless Specter man isn’t the bad guy? He’s just trying to ward off grave-diggers and robbers?

Asha Shanks is the criminal, but he has nowhere near the same level of creativity or drama as the Headless Specter man.

“And I’d have found [the treasure first] if it weren’t for you snoopers!”

Day 22 of no “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”

[zalrb]

Regarding the post you made a while back about the non-white characters in House of the Dragon. I’m pretty sure they’re written that way on purpose because the white feminist writers don’t want them to be liked. I think it’s a form of sabotage and to me comes off that they’re irritated they have to write for characters that aren’t white. It definitely comes off as jealousy as well because it’s heavily towards the mixed races girls playing Daemon and Laena’s daughters. The most overlooked point to me is that Daemon is never directly nice to Laena, even when they have to write him flirting with her it’s a backhanded compliment that she’s almost as pretty as her brother. Then with his daughters it’s blatantly obvious they want them in the background to be seen in a negative light. The brutality of adding two girls to be hit by a boy to me is just crazy, and it’s followed by none of the adults in the room even acknowledging they were hurt. It actually comes off as Y/N fanfiction written by a white feminist and the white female characters are her self inserts having knights coming to save them (and their children) and make them feel better while the characters played by non-white girls are treated the exact opposite. But to me the biggest point is no matter how they are portrayed on screen the fandom on both teams will always treat them worse.

Interesting perspective. The thing with how I view HOTD is that I think none of the characters, like none of the characters are fleshed out or nuanced or well-written and I don't think any of the characters are actually framed in a positive or negative light but maybe that's just because I don't see anyone in a positive and/or negative light because I don't think there's really anything there narratively and I think that 99% of the takes I read about these characters are coming from the books rather than what the show provides or are viewers' projections rather than actual things presented in the show because to reiterate, I find the narrative weak and the characters weaker and more than that I find everything lazy so when people were complaining about Laena dying and how we were just introduced to her and she had no screentime, I was like well even the characters who do have screentime have no depth, like anons had to come into my inbox after every single episode to explain why all of the characters were important, why a relationship with a dragon was significant, why this battle meant that, why that egg meant this, like there's just SO much nothing. Like you say that Daemon was never nice to Laena but I'm also like, kay every time I would watch an inside the episode clip about how Daemon loves Viserys more than anything I'm like but I haven't really seen anything to suggest that except for a comment to someone else about showing his brother respect so since I think they did such a bad job with the white characters, when it comes to the Black characters I see it more as tokenism and virtue signalling rather than an actual attempt at representation which creates narrative issues because there was no care given as opposed to something like The Handmaid's Tale where white characters are given all this space and depth and nuance and time given to their characters and full relationships with each other and then I can (and have) literally tracked the very deliberate ways in which Black and people of colour are used in the show

[potsmart]

A Fresh, Less Predictable List of What to Watch While Stoned

The secret is out. Everyone knows I’m a huge stoner, a wake and bake, never leaves home without his herb, you will know me by the sound of my cough type of everyday pothead. In the same way that every Christmas inevitably a family member will get me a tie dye shirt that says “Freshly Baked” or something similar, gormandizers of good ganja are suggested the same few things to watch online while high. It’s cool, everyone loves Chong man, but you can only watch Up In Smoke so many times. (Once.) Make sure you’ve gone to the HoJo and picked up a bunch of munchies because here is a list of suggestions of things to watch after you get unreasonably high.

Grab yourself some weed here and get ready to zone out…

FRINGE SPORTS:

Mountain of Hell

Total chaos on mountain bikes in the Alps is what this delivers. This race starts with over 1,000 riders at the top of a mountain in the alps and ends at the bottom. There are very few trails and riders start in the snow on what would be more appropriate to ski down. Get blazed and watch the whole race as this guy passes 1,000 people. This race is great to watch high because there are plenty of thrills mixed in with the incredible landscape of the Alps.

Bodysurfin’ The Movie

Unlike its sexy cousin surfing, body surfing has never been cool or marketable. Don’t tell that to David Schwepps, hit star of the incredible Bodysurfin’ The Movie. Get ready for weird skits, a completely made up lingo and bag of tricks with creamy slow-mo shots of Aussies bodysurfing. Sports like bodysurfing are almost like a dance since there are no real objectives other than staying in the wave and having a great time.

Rollerman

I’m not really sure if this guy is an innovator or just a weirdo, but he’s been using a suit full of rollerblade wheels to bomb down formidable hills and weave through traffic for what seems like two decades now. You got to give it to a guy who keeps on keeping on with a sport he invented

LIVE MUSIC:

Getting blazed can really help you centre your mind in a specific moment and enjoy art on a deeper level. Pull up your favourite artist live or acoustic and see what they sound like if you’ve never seen them in person. Even if you aren’t a musician there is so much wonderful information to be pulled from watching artists work. Here are some amazing artists I like to put on in the background as audio visual flavour for me session:

Dosh

Dosh is a true one man band, playing a looping everything, but not to be lumped in with the general cringy and gimmicky loop musicians that are a dime a dozen. Probably his biggest claim to fame is being part of the rhythm section for Andrew Bird. In fact much of what I enjoy about Andrew Bird is contributed by Dosh. He’s just a stunning drummer, keyboardist etc.

Against the Clock

This is a series where electronic artists are given 10 minutes to create a song. If you’re into electronic music this is a gem. If not, it may help guide you towards appreciation as it focuses on process, gear and creation in a very concrete way. Check out this episode here:

PROCESS VIDEOS:

Pencils etc.

A lot of us have a childlike fascination for how things are made. If you don’t have one, maybe it’s time to consider fostering one. A lot of people find videos on the process of making something to be relaxing.  Sure you could watch Rick n Morty while baked, but don’t you want to learn how a pencil is made?

Hot Sauce

Did you know Tabasco Sauce takes 3 years to ferment? Stop lying, of course you didn’t. Learn that and more in the classic “How It’s Made” episode on hot sauce. How It’s Made is a great show to watch while stoned in general. Mark Tewksbury is every Canadian’s wholesome dad. How could you not want to sit and listen to him explain how rainbow sprinkles or Twinkies are made.

There you have it, not a single Cheech n Chong movie, no That 70’s Show (classic), no Bob Marley (listen I love Bobby, but this is a “refreshing” list my fellow stereotype), but still generally interesting stuff to watch. Stay safe and order weed in. Both your mom and Mark Tewksbury are worried about you.

Buy some weed bro.

By Richard “Dick” Weed, Ganja Guru and Guest Contributor for Potsmart

[maimishou]

Skam France Season 9 Thoughts and Expectations for Season 10

It’s been awhile since I’ve watched a season of Skam France. I went in basically knowing nothing about this season, but I’ll admit I had low expecatations after the previous two. Maybe it’s because I watched it as complete episodes rather than individual clips, but I enjoyed this season more than Seasons 7 and 8 which I watched as clips. I’m starting to think I just can’t handle watching a season live or semi-live. I know it’s not being clips that’s the issue because I watched the entirety of NL and the majority of España as clips just fine.

Honestly, I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this season. While the breakup between Lola and Maya makes sense with the way they explained it (Though it apparently contradicts previous seasons. I probably should’ve rewatched or recapped the last few seasons in hindsight.), both were kind of awful this season. Even though I understand why Lola was upset she was also hostile pretty much all the time. And while I felt for Maya, what the fuck was up with her lashing out at everybody? Especially her basically delcaring that Max and Tiff were doomed to failure. I feel for Lola and Maya, but this season actively ruined thier characters and the ending didn’t really feel earned.

Another thing I noticed this season is that there’s a lot more scenes that aren’t from Maya’s POV. It’s nothing new, but it’s definitely unexpected since it’s mostly regulated to certain Sana seasons dedicating their last few episodes to the rest of the cast. It makes the show feel more cinematic and while I understand why it’s done (It’s to show how worried the rest of the cast are for Maya as well as what they’re up to when she isn’t around.), I’m not sure if I like it or not.

The best thing about this season was definitely Maya’s relationship with La Mif. While she didn’t treat them the best they were all supportive of her and you can clearly tell that they care for each other. Her relationship with Redouane is especially good. I love how supportive he is over her and while it’s not much it is a decent dynamic. I do wish it was more mutally benefictial however. Still, it’s basically the heart of the season. Yeah there’s her relationship with June, but to be honest that’s not one I was invested in and it’s weakened by them not even getting together.

Overall, I liked this season but it’s definitely a mixed bag. It’s better than the previous two but I still like seasons 4 and 6 more. Next season is Anaïs’s and I’m basically going into that with no expectations. She’s Tiff’s (previous?) best friend so I’m expecting Tiff (and Max by extention) to play a decent role there. And considering this season it is a bit worrying that they might damage the Tiff/Max relationship in some way. Of course, that’s assuming they don’t give Jo that role since for the most part Jo’s been the one who’s played a major role after Lola’s season. She wasn’t as important to Season 9 as she was to 7 and 8, but she was still heavily present. While I would hope they’d make Tiff the focus instead due to her relationship with Anaïs, I guess I’ll see.

[swiftzeldas]

ok a mutual just reblogged a post about neverafter that i disagree with but in typing my response to that i got so long winded i figured i might as well make my own post just out of politeness to the OP but this is what i think and why this season is frustrating in many ways

the players this season are doing a valiant and admirable job attempting to grapple with the frankly impossible campaign their DM has put them in. every season of d20 is by nature of the series on rails, but this season more than ever! they’re trying to find creative solutions to their problems but brennan has in mind how he wants this story to go and they literally aren’t ABLE to solve things creatively because in neverafter things HAVE to happen the way brennan wants them to or the story brennan wants to tell won’t be told

brennan is the problem this season. brennan is trying to cram so much worldbuilding and so many boring NPCs into this season that the players DO NOT HAVE TIME to do anything they need to do to further THEIR OWN stories. this is a d&d campaign, not the brennan lee mulligan story hour. or at least it’s supposed to be. this season we have spent hours of time listening to brennan lore dump and explain things about his world, while the players make minimally consequential rolls and ask questions while the characters get to do NOTHING

and on the horror note, i am personally not convinced this was ever really meant to be the horror season, and if you know me you know i subscribe to a VERY loose definition of the genre. i think brennan made a throwaway joke while shooting the first episode and they ran with the horror concept too hard when marketing this. aside from rosamund’s introduction, nothing in this season has been especially reminiscent of horror. i do not think brennan is particularly familiar with the horror genre (he doesn’t strike me as a fan) but we KNOW he can do scary because fantasy high sophomore year has some very scary moments, and there are moments in both seasons of TUC as well as the seven that i found scary....this season? maybe it’s the cosmic nature of it, but i don’t find it scary and i don’t think it’s effective horror. (i don’t think brennan is effectively retelling fairy tales with his npcs either. i do think the players are doing well with their characters and the subversion of those stories)

furthermore, the blending of the two genres is not working for me even a little bit. on one hand, we have this interesting take on fairytales and what it means to be a story, and on the other hand we have a sprawling cosmic universe involving authors and meta narratives that i personally can’t quite parse the intention of, and these two conflicting storylines don’t seem to complement each other. in fact, i find that they’re actually really getting in each other’s way - every time i settle in for this fairy tale story all of a sudden we’re ripping open the fabric of the universe. 

i think it must be tough for the players to settle in and figure out what they are supposed to DO - because to me it seems that brennan has a way he wants this season to go, and the players can’t figure out how to get there. that’s poor DMing, which isn’t something i’m used to seeing from brennan. in the interest of his narrative, he’s also making things too easy for them at times just so they can finish their actions and he can get back to his story. the dogfish fight is an egregious example - there is no mechanic in d&d that should allow brennan to tell his players the mechanic that will allow them to defeat the dogfish. that’s pretty blatant metagaming. maybe it’s fun for the players in the moment, but as a viewer it’s not fun to watch. 

idk i keep thinking back to the cathedral battle in ACOC. the players had no escape in that battle aside from breaking the huge stone barriers against the windows. brennan explained bit by bit what it would take them to break the barriers, but he didn’t explicitly tell them exactly what they needed to do in one go. not even on a nat 20 would brennan have done that in ACOC

idk, i think brennan has gotten in over his head. it’s great that he’s telling a very complex story, but this story in his brain has gotten in the way of the gameplay and the players’ ability to help craft effective arcs for their characters

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2003): Scythe

#3: Scythe

Main author(s): Erik Alm

Release date: April 10th, 2003 (database upload)

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: Vanilla

Levels: 32 (standard 30 + 2)

Scythe is another WAD that I have seen being talked about a lot. At first glance, it might look like a spiritual successor to Adam Windsor’s Demonfear, due to the levels having a much smaller size than your typical WAD stuff. But there are many things in between that differentiate Scythe from Demonfear. And it’s time to see what this WAD has to offer.

The story talks about demons attacking Earth from the future with the time machine, and you basically end up hoping through time as well to find out the time anomaly related to the (another) invasion.

I like how self-aware the story is. The WAD knows what it is and doesn’t try to be something bigger than it is.

By the Vanilla standards, Scythe looks rather good. There is some more interesting stuff here and there like, for instance, the crane in M/S Futura, the above-mentioned time... thingy that appears in two levels, or Burial Grounds in its entirety, but this WAD, usually, looks very simplistically. The middle of this WAD is probably the part that looks the best and is the most diversive out of the three episodes.

I’ll get on the topic of episodes later.

Almost all of the levels use non-stock music, mostly made out of stuff from other Classic Doom-related games/WADs but also having MIDI versions of music from Perfect Dark, Castlevania 64, and Symphony X band to name a few.

Also, ROTT music is in the last level. And it perfectly fits once you end up there. But about that later.

As I said at the beginning, Scythe’s maps are usually really small. Without enemies and finding secrets you might actually finish them in less than half a minute. There are also relatively easy to understand. Maybe it will take a longer time on one, maybe two levels on your first try, but there is nothing that can be considered complicated.

The only level not made by Erik Alm is I Dunno Torn, created by the titular Torn (who also helped with the music choice alongside Qwerty). And it was fine level. Nothing special but I experienced worse.

As I mentioned earlier, Scythe is split into three episodes, each made out of ten levels. At the end of the first two, you end up killed, meaning that you can start any of the episodes in any order if you aren’t fond of Pistol-starting every map. I’ll talk more about them later since they are related more to the difficulty of this MegaWAD.

From time to time there will be something interesting, like restoring power in the facility in Power Outage, the previously mentioned time-traveling device/portal that appears in M/S Futura and... Run From It...

sigh

Okay, I’m not gonna delay it any further. Let’s talk about, probably, the most infamous level of Scythe: Run From It.

To say that I don’t like this map is a little bit of an understatement. And if you played this MegaWAD, or read/watch some information/review about it, you know exactly what’s wrong with this map: It’s on a time limit. Thirty seconds to pass this map after going through one linedef or you are toasted.

It’s not the first time I experience this kind of situation. Dystopia 3’s MAP03 also had a moment where you had to do the race to survive, but it was done much better in that WAD because the traps weren’t that dickish and would still allow you to finish the race, you were given more time on lower difficulties and, most of all, it was ONLY A PART OF A MAP, NOT THE ENTIRE MAP.

So yeah, it will be better for you to just skip this map entirely, either by typing IDCLEV29 or by using the changemap command (in GZDoom) depending on your taste.

If I could summarize the difficulty level in Scythe in one sentence it would be something like this ==> Starts out easy as pie, ends on a FUCKING NIGHTMARE.

Now allow me to explain this answer further.

As a reminder, the MegaWAD being split into three episodes is not just some quirky gimmick that was added for no reason. Each episode basically scales up the difficulty as you play further into Scythe.

The first episode is pretty much easy. Sure, there are curveballs here and there but if you are lucky, you might end up finishing it without even saving once.

The second episode is something that I would consider a typical difficulty level in a WAD from the early-mid 2000s. It’s challenging for sure, but it still feels manageable if you are one of the masochists that finished stuff like Hell Revealed and/or Alien Vendetta before.

The third episode, though? This is where the hell actually starts. Not really its first half since it’s still rather similar to the second episode but with Cyberdemons as regular enemies from now on. It’s the second half that turns this WAD into the endurance test.

Side note here, but I strangely like how the weapons you get per each episode are basically the same as the original Doom I (with Super Shotgun being available from Blood Bath (in the secret near the secret exit) onwards).

Consider it as a warning, folks: If you plan to marathon Scythe, especially on Ultra Violence, do me a favor and do yourself two breaks. One after you reach MAP26, and the other at MAP30. Because these two maps (especially the latter) are the reason why this WAD turns its course into Hell itself.

MAP26: Fear, is the first surprise slaughter map in this WAD. Until this point, the number of enemies didn’t pass 100 enemies on almost all of the levels. This one has 653 enemies on Hurt Me Plenty, flooded with mid to high-tier monsters. Surprisingly though, it is rather merciful, filled with Megaspheres and giving you Invulnerabilities to help you get the keys. Still, its’ a hard map, so be careful while playing it.

Then there is MAP30: Fire and Ice. It may only have 80 monsters more than Fear but it feels at least ten times harder than that map. The environment is more unfriendly, power-ups are weaker and more spread out, there is less cover, ammo is scarcer, etc. Basically, Hell. This map belongs on the same spot as HR’s Post Mortem and AV’s Dark Dome, where only complete and utter badasses will finish it. And I finished this map three times as of writing these words.

Advice for you: Do yourself a break if you feel overwhelmed by Fire and Ice. You can also change the music if you need bigger motivation. It helped me at least.

Surprisingly, I didn’t encounter any bugs during my playthroughs. Or at least the game-breaking ones. From what I’ve encountered and read about later, some of the levels’ names are incomplete like MAP19 showing you AD instead of 3000 AD.

And that was Scythe, folks. Is it a good WAD on its own? Yes. Is it a good successor to Demonfear? Yes. It might not look as pretty as some other Vanilla WADs I’ve played or constantly hard, but it wasn’t the priority for this WAD. It wanted to show how fun it is to play through smaller maps than your typical WAD had by that time. It wanted to be a blast to play first. And while it has some dickish moments, it was fair WAD. If you are into Vanilla WADs/MegaWADs, you can download Scythe without any repercussions.

If you want to hear more about Scythe, check out Dean of Doom’s review on it (although I feel like he might be too harsh for most of the WAD):

I’ll see you next time, with the next WAD on the list being much smaller in map amount.

Bye!

P.S.: My favorite episode of Scythe was the second one.

[spyoikawa]

still on that saiki k brainrot so hear me out-

metori, saiki, teruhashi, aren and hairo with an s/o who really loves to bake/cook-

no thoughts just Reader learning how to make coffee jelly for saiki (like maybe they make him a tower of coffee jelly for an anniversary or his birthday-). no thoughts just Reader cooking something for metori who pretends to not want to eat it cause it’s ‘peasant food’ but ends up really enjoying their cooking. no thoughts just cooking/baking date with teruhashi. no thoughts just teaching aren how to cook/bake and having a food trade with him, bringing him lunch/a snack to school. and no thoughts just hairo hyping Reader up while they cook/bake and making stuff for him to bring to class rep meetings-

thank you! <3

the excitement I got got I saw teruhasi- i don't see a lot of writing for her and I get happy when I get to do less than common things! Thanks!

I'm running low on creative juices, so please I hope you don't mind if I use the exact scenarios you suggested 💀

Note: some of the things I wrote felt really rude so please don't mind the tone tags in parentheses, also i have not edited this yet

Saiki, Teruhasi, Hairo, Aren, and Saiko with an S/O who can cook/bake

♡romantic♡

Saiki Kusuo (italics = saiki telepathy)

Although it was undeniably tasty, your boyfriend's obsession with coffee jelly was not only getting out of hand but also quite expensive-

I mean he spent 3,000 yen for one serving-

But yanno what it's ok, coffee jelly is easy to make, and this gives you an excuse to hang out (not that you need one)

"Ok Ku, i had an idea"

I like it, just make sure you teach me how to do it too

"Rude. I wasn't finished"

You did in your head

As endearing as it could be sometimes, Saiki's mind-reading could be a pain occasionally

You wound me.

"Good. (/j)"

After a long debate over recipes and serving sizes, there it was, in all its glory, your first batches of coffee jelly

it was heaven

You did end up sharing the recipe with him, but it still became a little tradition to make the coffee jelly together

It just tastes better that way :)

Kokomi Teruhashi

In the midst of your TV and cuddles date, Kokomi huffed and turned off the TV

But of course it was rude to just turn off the TV, so she offered to play a board game instead

You did play with her, but your curiosity was begging as to why she wanted to change the activity

"Hey Kokomi, this game is fun, don't worry... but why'd you turn off the TV so suddenly?"

"Oh, it was nothing! I just thought you would like this game, and I wanted you to enjoy yourself more!"

Now, that's the answer the most perfect girl in the world would give

But Kokomi is still human, there's gotta be something wrong

You spent a while thinking to yourself about what you were watching, you two agreed on a documentary, then after the documentary, the channel played a cooking show with a guest baker/cook Makoto Teruhashi- oh.

So that was it

At the end of the round, you stood up and offered your hand to pull up Kokomi with you.

"Hey, wanna make a bet?"

She looked up with a bit of curiosity.

"I bet you, I can make your favorite dish, far better than Makoto can"

She smiled a bit, "sure!"

Her favorite food was simple, so you taught her to cook it and added in some other things just for fun (and so she can't recreate it without your secret ingredients)

Now you guys have cooking dates often and always find ways to spice up foods (and beat Makoto at whatever he was doing on tv)

Hairo Kineshi

my thoughts and prayers go to you

we all saw what happened when he tried to make crepes

but in his mind, it was a learning opportunity

You guys were taking an after-school stroll, the weather was really nice, it would be a shame if you two just went home and did nothing. Walks like these tend to get sentimental and nostalgic, so your conversation subconsciously started to drift towards school life.

"And do you remember that time we had to get kuboyasu, kaido, and nendo to play on a baseball team? Oh my god thank god it didn't go too poorly, that one player really pulled through at the end..." you laughed out

"Haha I do remember that, I can't believe we got them to play, it really could've gone worse" He smiled as he remembered that day, but then his eyes drifted up to a bakery across the road. "Speaking of poor experiences..."

after he explained to you he and kaido's crepe disaster, you couldn't help but tease fun at him for a bit

but you did agree to teach him more about cooking and baking

he's a bit too passionate about cracking eggs, but hey, at least you can work faster

after many, many burnt crepes and pans, there it was, a fallen appart, incorrectly folded, but still a properly cooked crepe sat there in all its beauty

it kinda looked like this

Although he does learn many different things with you, crepes will be the thing he makes over and over again, even when he has it down to a science, just because it's the first thing you taught him, and he will keep that sweet memory forever (get it. sweet? Cause crepes? Im funny i swear.)

Aren Kuboyasu

He actually knows how to cook pretty well

He's not really sure when he picked up cooking, its kinda just stuck around, but he enjoys it, it makes him seem more goody

and he can treat you :)

I will die on my "aren lives for the most basic/domestic activities hill"

cooking with him is always an experience, he will play music in the background, and pull you aside to dance at random times

also does that really hot thing where he stands behind you, reaches around to hold your hands, and basically has you in a cage while showing you how to do something

it's one of those spontaneous things to do, if there's nothing else to do, might as well make something to eat

firm believer in "if you have to eat to live, you might as well eat delicious foods" so he will always try out new things with you if its healthy and tasty

"bab look at this show" you called out from where you were sitting, there was a cooking show/food documentary on, and it was showing a special food. "it says this chicken has a secret sauce they dip it in"

he walked over to the tv and watched it for a couple seconds, thinking a bit.

"...wanna figure it out?"

"yes. I'll make the chicken if you figure out the sauce?"

"deal."

will you ever know if you got the secret sause? Nope, but you did figure out a chicken recipe that is good as hell

he probably writes down all the recipes you "invented" together for safekeeping and so he can return to it later, but he refuses to show it to anyone

Saiko Metori

as much as I love him, we all saw in that one episode how picky he is while eating, and is probably a bitch to please while cooking/baking

so after a lot of convincing, you got him to sit in the kitchen with you so he can watch you bake for the two of you

in reality, all you have to do is give the dish a fancy rich-sounding name, you just have to be really careful with what you say

like this 💀

you decided to bake for him today, baking is a lot more "by the book" than cooking, so you thought he would take a bit of comfort in knowing it was done in a professional way

"alright tori, so I think I'll make a heavy pastry made with fine cacao and extracts, baked into a rich dessert for a fine sweet palette"

"you're making brownies aren't you"

"🧍‍♂️"

Told you, you have to be as specific as possible

He does eventually get interested in what you're doing though, as he never really sees his personal chef cook, and wants to help you by the end

He really did enjoy it! It quickly became one of his favorite treats

But funny enough, no matter how many bakeries he tried or how many times his chef tried, they never tasted the same

(you put in special spices as your own little mark on the treat)

so he ends up having you over for more cooking dates

Which he really does enjoy btw

as a tsundere he will look all annoyed and probably call you a plebe, but these are his favorite types of dates

[wenellyb]

I don't know how to explain this but TFATWS reads a lot like “yes Sam and Bucky are romantically involved but this is not a romance so we won't delve into their relationship”.

If you think about it, in Marvel movies, the romance is not at the center of the plot. Even in solo movies, there is usually just one kiss, never more. And it the Avengers, there are usually no kissed between the couples. 

I'm trying to stay away my shipper googles but even then, some scenes don't make sense to me. I love watching movies and TV shows and one thing I like is that dialogues are not put there randomly, the script has a meaning, the words have a meaning, and the scenes they decide to keep have a meaning.

And for some of the Sambucky scenes in TFATWS,  I’m struggling to find any other meaning than “Sam and Bucky had feelings for eachother at some point”.

You can argue that jokes about the 2 partners being more than just friends is a recurring joke in a lot of buddy cop movies, but in those movies, it is usually a joke, just for laughs. The only scenes that would fall into that category in the FATWS are the rolling in the flower field scene and the therapy lesson scene where Sam and Bucky get so close that there legs are intertwined. 

All the other scenes are so emotionally heavy it's difficult to categorize them as only fanservice, or two guys being friends. I'm not saying they aren't any emotional scenes in buddy cop movies, but usually the emotional scenes don't go as deep as what we've seen  in the Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

I tried to look at all their scenes together and split them into different categories, and I stilll end up with some scenes that point to a relationship that goes beyond friendship between Sam and Bucky:

Scenes that fall into the fanservice category and there just for laughs:

The bickering about wizards and sorcerers in episode 2

The rolling in the flower field scene and the beginning of the therapy scene.

Sam asking Bucky to do something when the Dora Milaje are attacking John Walker in episode 4

Scenes that can be seen as purely friendship:

In episode 2:

 Bucky deciding to follow Sam because I quote  "he doesn't trust Redwing". What is that even supposed to mean? ... He probably meant I don't trust Redwing to protect Sam like he would.

Bucky standing up from the stack where he was sitting on, to go sit next to Sam when they were on the flight back from their mission. 

Sam waiting for Bucky in the police station, even though they try to act as if they're not friends

Sam agreeing to go see Zemo with little to no protest

In episode 3:

Sam making sure Bucky is alright and asking him if he's ok

Sam touching Bucky's metal arm when he’s pretending to be the Winter Soldier

In episode 4:

Bucky saying "I'm going with you" when Sam says Karli wants to meet with him alone.

In episode 5:

The shield practice scene when they have a heart-to-heart talk in episode 5 about what the shield meant for Bucky and Bucky finally apologizing for the way he treated Sam and explaining how as a White man he couldn't possibly know what it would mean for Sam to be Captain America

Sam asking if Bucky is ready for some tough love.

Scenes that make no sense if we see their relations as just friendship:

In episode 2: 

The therapist said she heard a lot about Sam, she wants Sam to stay for the therapy for I don't know what reason, she makes them do a couple exercise, and says it explicitly.

Why would the therapist say she heard a lot about about Sam, that she want to do a couples exercise with them? Those scenes alone are alright, but when you take them together it's quite interesting. 

The couples therapy trope has been used in a lot of Buddy cop movies or TV shows, but usually they don't delve into sensitive topics like they did in TFATWS, the scene was so emotional for a few seconds, I forgot it was a Marvel show.

In episode 3:

When Bucky tells Sam he helped Zemo escape, Sam was furious, and couldn't stop yelling at Bucky about how insane his plan was, and Sam was right. But the moment Bucky looks him in the eyes and basically says, "please do it for me", Sam agrees right away... Excuse me what??? How does this make sense?                                                                              

If my friends ask me to work with an international criminal who just escaped from prison, I wouldn't just stop arguing with them just because they looked at me with puppy eyes. I would continue to yell at them until the end of the mission. Sam was like, “ok, ok, I'll do it for you”? I'm sorry but that is not friendship only, it's something else.

In Episode 5:

 Can we talk about Bucky's reaction when Torres arrived in Episode 5?? The annoyed face when Torres walks in and Bucky walking away right after that, without even saying goodbye? Torres is the sweetest soul on earth, how can anybody hate him? Why would Bucky not like him??? This scene make no sense unless they're trying to tell us that Bucky is jealous or something.

Bucky asking a favor to Ayo, when he's not in good terms with the Wakandans. I'm sorry but do you realize how heavy this scene is? Ayo, just told Bucky that he should lay low for a while, and Bucky understands that, but his first thought is "I need to get a gift from Sam" first. Nope nope nope, you can't tell me this is just friendship. Ok, maybe it is, but I don't understand this filming choice. Plotwise, Sam could have asked for a suit or new wings himself.  I'm sure Sam is in very good terms with T'Challa and the Wakandans... What does it mean that Bucky was the one to ask for it as a gift to Sam, when Bucky was in a already in a difficult situation with the Wakandans due to him freeing Zemo.

Bucky touching Sam's waist to ask him to move when he starts helping him with the boat repair. And Bucky coming from behind to do so, giving us a very short but intimate scene.

Their conversation about Bucky staying over for the night: Bucky saying he doesn't want to make things weird with Sam and his family by staying over, and Sam saying how the people in the town are so open-minded. Why would they have that conversation if Sam and Bucky are only friends? Sarah knows about Bucky and his past, she know that he and Sam are friends (sort of), why would a friend staying over make things weird between him and his family? Why would Sam need to say that the people in this town are open-minded?

The video montage of them building the boat the day after. Anyone knows why they would show us that if they were only friends, and with THAT music choice? 

The extra long handshake at the end of their training scene, when they kept holding hands and looking into eachother’s eyes while talking together, and Bucky basically says he'll be there for Sam whenever he needs him.

I’m sorry but it doesn’t seem to me that they are being portrayed as just friends

Usually in buddy cop movies/ TV Shows, there are always joke but in the FATWS, some scenes are so emotional that I feel like I'm missing something. Bucky has this whole passive agressive behavior with Sam and yet he's unable to let Sam go on a mission on his own. One thing I really can't understand is that Bucky always seems know where to find Sam, as if he had been keeping tabs on him. 

So yes, there's definitely chemistry between Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, due to their friendship but it’s not only that. The writers and director have made the choice to keep some scenes and some dialogues ambiguous.

In some of the scenes we can see that there's more to Bucky and Sam's story than we know.

And they're not the first Marvel couple to have a similar treatment: Wanda and Vision's relationships was very subtle at the beginning, same for Natasha and Bruce, we rarely see them together explicitly but we knew they had a relationship.

It's the same for Sam and Bucky, some of the scenes only make sense if there has been a romantic relationship between Sam and Bucky at some point.

To me it's really like Sam and Bucky are set up as a couple or at least two people who have been romantically involved in the past, but the show won't expand on that because this is a superhero show, not a romance.

In an action movie, you would see some couples, or people who are obviously in a relationship or hints that there is something going on between them, but rarely would you see a kiss, that’s what I feel is happening here.

Last point: if Sam and Bucky had kissed in Episode 5 after their talk, it wouldn't have been out of nowhere and it wouldn't have changed anything to the plot. That's how I know my theory isn't that far-fetched.

I would love to hear your thoughts about some or all of these scenes (especially the Torres one, that one is driving me crazy)  and see what you think about it?

If you see their relationship being portrayed as pure friendship, I would like to know why. And would also love to hear how you guys interpret their other scenes together and if you have some different point of views about the scenes in the show.

[worstloki]

Okay, this is gettin’ real screwed up here.

I watch a lot of TV. Probably too much. And I’ve seen characters beaten to their knees before, sometimes even with collars. And yeah, there’s usually someone standing over them, and it’s been a woman sometimes. The kind of scene we got in episode 5 of Loki is not new ground.

But here’s the thing. In EVERY OTHER SCENE I can remember like this, the person kneeling is the hero. They’ve been brought down, fully humbled before the sneering villain, and in a few minutes something will happen to get them back on their feet again. It’s usually a tense moment, a “what if they break?” that makes you want the hero to win. You aren’t rooting for, or even liking in some cases, the person standing. You’re cheering for the person on their knees.

This doesn’t seem to be the case with the Loki show. Yes, the viewers may be rooting for Loki, but there’s no hatred for Sif there. She’s not proved herself to be a cold, heartless villain, ruthlessly pounding the hero until all he can do is kneel at her feet.

Except…she did kind of do that. But it isn’t treated as something bad. It’s treated more as something Loki deserved, in my opinion. The show wants us to feel like he deserved to get repeatedly beaten up and told horrible things, just for cutting off a lock of Sif’s hair. I’ll grant, it’s peanuts compared to what happened to him in the mythology. But it’s still bad. Especially since they had him acknowledge it, repeat her cruel words back. They’re playing it off as if Loki is still the villain by himself, and is only good because of other people- Mobius, mostly, but Sif is part of that.

That’s not the way Loki’s character is. In the comics particularly, his biggest arcs are always about reinventing the labels given to him, changing “villain” into something good, something he can use, and doing it by himself. Yes, there’s outside influence, but ultimately Loki is the one who decided to change.

The show is not letting him do that. The show is portraying him as a stubborn jackass who refuses to change until other people show him the light- either with psychological torture presented as therapy, or with beating him up a bunch of times until he gives in. The show and its characters are forcing Loki to become good- they aren’t showing him doing it by himself. He is not becoming one of the good guys, he’s being essentially enslaved by them, and the show is passing it off as somehow all that good influence finally rubbed off on Loki’s cold, villainous heart. That’s why him betraying Mobius was shown as so bad even though Loki barely knew him and had been psychologically tortured by him- Mobius is written as a character who can choose to be good, and Loki is written as a character who must be forced to be good.

And something about an entire show revolving around an independent character being treated as a villain, literally enslaved by the “good guys” (back when the show still wanted us to think the TVA weren’t shady as all hell), beaten to his knees with a collar around his neck until he accepts that he deserves to be alone because he isn’t “good” like everybody else…that doesn’t go down right for me.

The TVA being presented in not just a neutral but often reliable light is something I thought would change once Loki literally called out their propaganda and Sylvie called them fascists, but, for some reason the authoritarian genocidalists are not being presented as a bad thing and it irks me too.

It's especially weird because of the way what Loki claims to have wanted by making choices for people and what Mobius claims the TVA do ARE THE EXACT SAME THINGS, except Loki, until the show, hadn't done that of his own volition and was being tortured during the invasion and is treated terribly for something he didn't even succeed in doing, while the TVA successfully erase events on a mass scale but are presented as having a higher (or at best, - equal) moral ground.

The exact same thing was done in Ragnarok where Loki's "turning point" from a tricksy villainous scoundrel happened because Thor left him frying on the ground and gave him a pep talk filled with lies and general slander about how he could be better - and people see that as good because Thor is framed as a hero, and it's because instead of accepting Loki is a complex character they take what the narrative tells at face value and that is that Loki fights the protagonist(s) so he's bad.

I personally don't like the narrative pushing a character that is canonically an abuse victim and attempted suicide and was tortured right after as someone who needs fixing because he's lusting for power and needs it to gain a sense of control during a retcon which is occurring for the sake of calling him a complete bad guy who needs to change (probably because no actual original character development could be thought of?) after he was just confirmed as queer and colloquially (i assume) called a narcissist because of twisted love.

That he deserves to be alone was presented neutrally as a joke even as he was repeatedly getting beaten to the ground, and then both people he could call friends were removed from his immediate vicinity right after.

Loki isn't being presented as a character that has done a huge mix of good and bad in the movies, he's being presented as an oft incompetent idiot that deserves what he gets because he shouldn't have run away from captors, or he cut Sif's hair, or he killed his mother, or he dared to think he had any importance or could do something good, because the truth is he's an evil lying scourge.

"But maybe," Mobius says, "Maybe he wants to mix it up. Sometimes you get tired of playing the same part. Is that possible? He can change?" And everyone's already forgotten that moments before the mission Mobius said to Loki's face that the TVA has pruned a lot of Loki variants because he's so nice! look! he has hope in him when no one else does! It's also easy to forget the "and hey, if it doesn't work, I'll delete him myself," right after because the guy was smiling through it and the scene is followed by Loki really badly trying to explain the logic of being a trickster who everyone knows is a trickster.

A lot of people payed more attention in Ragnarok than to the other Thor movies so it's not a new retcon and people seem fine with the extremely strange take that 'loki is bad but he can do good sometimes,' because the character is more animated and acts foolish and that's generally more fun for comedy, which is fair for people to prefer imo, people find different things entertaining.

But I do solidly hope the show doesn't go that way though and takes a side with Loki on the narrative stance eventually because I've seen a lot of people who just. miss that the TVA's concept is bad. And those who think they're "reforming" Loki. As if the guy needs anything but a break at this point lmao he only got away from Thanos like 2 days ago please just let him rest for a bit he's a fail villain and it's cringe to have your supposed 1st open queer character get beaten to a pulp by Sif and then put wack sexualizing shots for it too :/

it's like the show itself is trying to sell the angle of "Loki is a villain" and I'm a clown who is still wanting that to be intentional because if it is? It could be amazing and playing with how different parties are framed would be s p e c t a cu l ar and could encourage people to reassess the hero coding in other movies including ones Loki was previously in - but we're reaching the last two episodes and I don't feel like that'll happen.

I feel like even if Loki does reach the end of the show as a transformed person it'll be done leaving the audience with "perhaps you're not so bad after all, Loki," and then also give credit to Mobius or Sylvie or whoever else was involved, simply because as even of yet Loki hasn't taken on a lead role in the show. I'd argue he hasn't really contributed anything worthwhile to plot either. As you've said, he's being shown as someone who needs to change but isn't really motivated to. Aw man they better not make romantic love the reason he wants to change.

[astermacguffin]

What if the Mark of Cain manifests differently when it's imprisoning God and not the Darkness? If the Darkness makes the Mark bearer go insane with unbridled want for destruction, then what does sealing God make you do?

An obsessive desire for creation? Creation to the point of corruption? (Think of the Shimmer from the film Annihilation. Continuous reproduction to the point of begetting alien, cancer-like entities. A refracted, distorted notion of creation.)

Okay, so canon divergence from The Trap. They successfully seal away Chuck, then Castiel bears the Mark. (Jack won't be back until later episodes, so he's not here yet.)

At first, they think he's fine. Cas says he's not feeling any bloodlust just yet. (He does feel a certain itch under his skin. Not a desire to murder, but a desire to do...something. He doesn't tell this to anyone.)

His grace is getting stronger, almost archangel-like (if not more). It's incredibly helpful for hunts, and Cas is happy to feel his wings healthy again after a long time. Sam is happy for him, but Dean is suspicious of things (especially since he's a previous Mark bearer).

After a while, Cas starts feeling...burdened, almost bloated by grace. (After all, he does have access to an infinite supply of it.) He needs to have an outlet for it.

Cas tells them so and Sam suggests healing people. Dean gives the green light on the condition that he remains invisible and he doesn't go Godstiel on them again.

It's a great outlet, and for the first few weeks they start feeling normal again. But unfortunately, healing stops being enough to relieve Cas of his excess grace anymore. The mass healings start to pile up all across the globe and it catches everyone's attention. Some think it's a blessed miracle, some think it's a sign of the end times. They make him slow down on the healings after that.

Without an outlet, however, Cas starts feeling antsy and pained. They brainstorm on possible alternatives. Cas suggests going to Heaven and saving it from collapse by healing his brethren's wings and creating more angels out of consenting souls in Heaven.

He explains Heaven's endangered and dwindling numbers. Sam agrees that it would hit two birds in one stone: relieve Cas from excess grace and prevent the extinction of angels. Dean doesn't like the idea of more winged dicks so he shoots down the idea. Eileen says that since Cas is the one in pain, he should be the one to decide.

Ultimately, Cas defers to Dean's judgment (as always). Sam protests, arguing that he can't just shoulder that pain. Cas replies: "I've suffered worse, Sam."

Cas doesn't complain about the pain for about a week, so for a while, everyone believes him when he said he can shoulder the pain. One day, Dean finds him outside the bunker, groaning in pain as he bleeds himself out, his grace pouring into the ground and sprouting plants. Dean sees this and is finally convinced to allow Cas to make more angels.

What follows then is a series of escalating events:

While Sam and Eileen are practicing their witchcraft for spell they need in a hunt, Cas suggests to enhance Sam's physical and magical abilities using his grace. "It will make the process faster and safer," he reasons. He agrees, but Dean eyes this suspiciously.

During one of their hunts, they encounter a young and freshly-turned vampire. The boy begs them not to kill him, and Cas gives him a proposal. "Promise not to feed on humans ever again and I shall cure you of your hungers and your pains. Pledge your allegiance to me and you shall never be afraid of yourself ever again." The boy agrees, and before Dean could even protest, Cas slices his palm and feeds the vampire his grace.

They argue about the grace-feeding in the Impala. Dean notices Sam's pointed lack of complaints and figures it out. "You're in on this, aren't you? How long has Cas been doing this? He's going Michael behind our backs and you're letting him?"

Sam argues that it's different because Cas isn't making super monsters; he's making them less "monstrous" (whatever that means). Sam's obsession with his own "purity" is key to understanding him here.

One time, Dean catches Cas in his "garden" ("forest" seems more apt with how lush the greens already are) creating butterflies and bees out of thin air using his grace alone.

Reports of the miraculously healed people suddenly gaining new abilities like increased strength, heightened senses, and prophecy start popping up. Some are experiencing phantom limbs, talking about their sprouting "wings."

Sam is becoming addicted to Cas' grace to the point that he willingly lets himself be hurt in hunts just so Cas can cure him. Dean confronts him about this, but Sam just argues that he's "never felt this pure before." Eileenn shares the same concern as Dean.

Hunts are becoming less frequent the more monsters are being "cleansed" by Cas. The world is becoming disconcertingly quiet.

Cas' "garden" is starting to emit this strange aura. The plants and creatures growing inside it are starting to look more...alien.

One of the original angels goes to Dean and tells him of Heaven's affairs. The Host is stable again, but the angels he created are...not exactly angels. They're graced up and they sustain Heaven, but their true forms are "horrifying and incomprehensible, even to an angel." The angel adds that more than 60% of Earth's creatures have already been touched by Cas' grace.

The final nail in the coffin is when Dean catches Cas in the garden fiddling with his angel blade. It's emitting a strange glow, vibrating a subtle hum and looking as if it's liquid, flowing and distorting here and there.

Dean asks him what he's holding. "Oh, this?" Cas responds. "This is the Last Blade. Last, not in terms of time but in concept, for no other blade shall ever compare to it. The spark of creation. Fiat lux."

Dean's heart sinks. Of course. The First and the Last, Alpha and Omega. "Cas...the Mark, I think i-it's scrambling your brain, man."

"I know," he replies, eyes wet and apologetic. It's a small moment of lucidity amidst weeks and months of...whatever that was.

"Okay, okay, so you're still you, that's... that's good. Okay." Dean doesn't know how to approach this. Give him a fight and he'll know what to do, but this? Watching his best friend, the love of his life, be distorted into something incomprehensible? Yeah, this is totally beyond him.

"You know, I used to hate Chuck," Cas says. "How could the Father of All Creation be this angry, petulant child? But," he continues, "knowing what I know now, it's either regressing into a petty child or being reduced to insanity."

"Cas...what are you talking about, man?"

"No mind should bear this burden, Dean. No matter how infinite they are," he says, voice trembling in exhaustion.

(more below the cut)

He continues. "The awareness of everything is the awareness of nothing at all. Imagine perceiving every possible piece of information about the world all at once. Seeing light in all its forms all at once: ultraviolet, infrared, etc. Sensing all the neutrinos zip by, sensing gravitational waves, sensing the slighest bit of seismic activity."

Dean doesn't know how to respond, so he lets him go on.

"Knowledge can only ever be a slice of the Totality of Truth. Truth is absolute chaos, and Knowledge is the partial ordering of this chaos. One can sanely approach Truth only through organized paritions of Totality. Why do you think Chuck is so obsessed with stories? Stories are linear and finite; they're sensible snippets of the endless sea of possible worlds."

"So, what? Are you trying to—"

"I'm not trying to justify Chuck's actions, Dean," he interrupts. "I just want to contextualize them. Chuck's simplistic and repetitive narratives are what they are: manifestations of a chaotic Totality, gone insane trying to understand itself. Looking for simple things to hold on to."

Cas takes a deep breath. He speaks with a shaky voice. "I'm barely holding myself together, Dean. I can feel the universe beneath my skin."

He doesn't know what possesses him to ask, but he does it anyway. "What are you holding on to?"

Cas smiles at that. "You."

They stare at each other for a while, frozen where they stand. Cas, with unrestrained affection in his face. Dean, struck by shock and indecision. It's Cas who first breaks the silence.

"I think we both know what needs to be done, while I'm still lucid enough." Cas slices his palm and lets his blood drip down the soil. He then thrusts the Last Blade into the ground, lifting it when the soil glows.

Dean stared in awe as the ground erupts and a familiar shape rises from the hollow. "Is that.."

"The Ma'Lak box, yes. I also enhanced it with the Blade to be able to house things as powerful as me."

"Cas, wait, maybe we can think of another way to—"

"Dean," he says, calmly. "You know there's no other way. I wouldn't ask this of you if there was."

In any other scenario, Dean would've kept arguing, but even he knows that they're running out of time. Sam's grace addiction is getting worse and all the creatures touched by Cas' grace are slowly mutating into eldritch horrors. Dean offers a shaky nod. "Okay."

Tension visibly releases from Cas' body. "Thank you, Dean." He opens the box and enters it with ease. "When you lock this, bury me with the garden's graced soil. Once I'm under, my influence over the world should dampen."

Dean gives a wordless nod. For a while, they just stared at each other, Cas lying down and Dean trying to memorize every inch of his face while he can.

Cas presses his hand into Dean's left shoulder where his mark used to dwell. "My untainted grace," he whisper gently. "Some of it is still inside you. That's probably why you're not as affected by me."

Dean wants to say, I'll always be affected by you, but he holds himself back.

He takes his hand back, a bloody handprint now on Dean's jacket. "I love you, Dean," he says, breathless.

"Cas..."

"I probably would've built up to that if we had more time but," he makes a surprised laugh, "I am, as you would say, already 'losing my marbles', so."

The air quotes would've been funny and endearing in any other scenario, but it just makes Dean's vision blur up with tears.

"Thank you for everything, Dean. I know we've done nothing but repeatedly hurt each other these past few years, but I don't want to spend a deathless eternity with that as my memory of you. I forgive you, even for the things you haven't forgiven yourself for yet. And I'm sorry for everything, especially for ending things like this."

He should probably wipe away his tears to clear his vision, but Dean can do nothing but stare at Cas in awe, in fear, in grief, in reverence. They're both fully crying now.

"Goodbye, Dean."

"Wait, Cas."

Cas looks at him, waiting.

"Can you...can you say it again?"

He doesn't need to clarify what 'it' means. They both know.

With one last mournful smile, Cas says: "I love you, Dean."

And with that, Dean finally gathers all the strength he needs to shut the lid and lock the box. He stares at it for a while, unblinking. He forgot to ask, Can you hear my prayers down there? But it's too late now to ask.

The box automatically lowers itself into the hole it arose from. Now all that's left to do is to cover it again with soil.

Dean doesn't bother with a shovel. He gently buries the box with his hands deep in the soil, some of it getting trapped under his nails. He continues the mindless task, whispering a tireless series of I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I hope you're okay I'm sorry, over and over between his quiet sobs. Cas is quiet inside the box. No screaming or crying. Dean doesn't know if that's better or worse.

When the final clump of soil is pressed into the mound, he suddenly feels it: a visceral shift that echoes throughout the world. The alien glimmer of the garden dims, and the world corrects its axis. Dean screams his agony into the air.

That's how Sam finds him: sprawled over a mound of soil, crying his heart out. Dean doesn't need to say anything: he knows what happened. He pulls his brother off the ground and brings him inside the bunker.

For the first two weeks, Dean cycles through drinking and passing out in various places in the bunker. If he's not wearing the jacket, he's holding it with close to him. Sam gives him a considerable space to grieve while he monitors the world grace problem with Eileen. The grace mutations have significantly dropped since then and everyone's going back to normal.

Unfortunately, that means monsters are getting hungry again. Sam doesn't want to leave his brother alone after going nonverbal with grief and dysfunctional due to alcohol. Eileen assures him that she can handle hunts on their own and that the hunter network that they're building will lessen the workload.

Sam's attempts to sober Dean up finally work, mostly due to the latter having very little strength to protest. Dean remains sober an entire day for the first time in weeks, and all he can think about is: I haven't prayed to Cas in a while. The longing might have reached him, but never a coherent prayer.

The first time he goes out of the bunker in a while, he heads straight to Cas' garden. Sam's glad that he's finally going out because "the sun is good for you" or something, but he's really only here for Cas. He kneels in front of the burial mound (where a patch of an unknown species of flowers is already growing).

The first prayer he says to him in a while is: I love you, Cas. I should've said it while you were still here. Not saying it out loud and just strongly thinking about the words somehow bolsters him to get the words through.

He's crying again, and he knows he's losing coherency. In his mind, he's explaining about his hangups and his regrets and his continuous denial of his own joy, but one constant remains: he's beaming all his love and affection into this prayer.

He's halfway through explaining all the traits that he finds endearing in Cas when suddenly, he feels it like a snap. If the glimmer dimmed when he buried Cas, now it's as if it was never there in the first place. With an unsettling amount of certainty, Dean just knows that Cas is gone. For real, this time.

"C-cas...?" It's the first thing he's said in a while and it sounds rough in his long unused voice.

"CAS! CAS!!! " He's now screaming, ripping away the flowerbed with his bare hands and scratching the soil away. Tears are obstructing his vision, but he has no time to wipe them away. He needs to make sure that is really gone. His hands are bleeding and he doesn't give a damn.

Eventually, Sam comes running towards him. "Dean! Dean, stop!"

He tries to hold his brother back, but Dean just keeps on clawing away soil. "Sammy, Sammy he's gone, he's not there anymore, Sammy I have to see, please, let me see Cas again, I need—" he breaks into sobs again, and like a puppet with its strings cut off, he slumps into Sam.

"Dean, it's okay, it's okay..." he says softly to his shaking brother.

Eventually, when Dean calms down, he looks at the carnage he's done and starts sobbing again. The flowers, his last evidence of Cas being here, are all destroyed. Now Cas truly is gone.

. . .

When Cas first heard Dean's confession prayer, he was overcome with joy. When he realized what that means, however, his stomach suddenly sinks.

He hears before he sees the Empty arrive, slithering like black goo.

"Wow, were you excited enough for eternal slumber that you wanted a preview?" The Shadow teases in Meg's voice.

At first, he was dreading the Empty, but now that he thinks of it, it's actually the perfect prison for him: a vast, endless nothingness for him to fill with his creations.

And if Jack wasn't in Heaven, that only means that he's in the Empty, and he can't wait to see his son again. Even when blinded by the madness of the universe, he can never forget the joy of being a father.

"Yes," he replies, "I'm actually glad you're here now."

. . .

Somewhere around the globe, Billie drops Jack back.

"Don't worry, kid. You'l reunite with your father very soon."

(to be continued)

[ladybugout-au]

Dear. GOD. After seeing Furious Fu, I would honestly love to see LBO!Marinette just chewing out Su-Han for all his canon-to-fic BULLSHIT. Like, I know you’ve already got a plan to incorporate Feast into LBO, which I’m super excited for, so this asshole showing up with all his nonsense after the new Team Miraculous is set, hell maybe even after they’ve already retrieved the Butterfly and the Peacock, and watching Marinette (and possibly Fu since he has the memories to stand up for himself) tear this dude a new one would really be the cherry on top of an already awesome fic. Sorry to rant in your inbox lol but the new episode just made me so. ANGRY.

In the lounge room of the Liberty, everyone jumped as they heard a noise from up above deck, as if something heavy had fallen or been dropped. Marinette briefly pulled away from Luka’s hold, staring up at the ceiling and wondering aloud, “What was that?”

“I don’t know,” Juleka admitted, exchanging concerned looks with Rose.

“That definitely wasn’t Mom,” Luka noted with a tilt of his head.

Pounding footsteps followed, making it clear that a person had clearly gotten on the houseboat without the gangplank being there.

Nino jolted on alert, turning to Duusu with a hushed whisper. “Hide!”

“All of you,” Kagami began, standing up and looking around vaguely at every kwami. “get out of sight.”

The kwami, breaking out of their trance after the brief scare, scattered in every direction to find their own individual hiding places, some choosing to hide with their respective holder and others preferring to hide behind or inside objects. Ivan went into his usual protective mode, wrapping an arm around Mylene while she clung to him.

Marinette stood up, rushing over to the table and picking up the Miracle Box to stow it away. She looked around, then dashed for the microwave and stored the box inside.

She shut the door just in time for the intruder to descend from the staircase: an old man, dressed in Chinese garb and carrying a strange mystical-looking staff. He had a stern expression, his brows knitted together as he scanned the room like none of them were even there. He raised his staff, his gaze eventually locking on the microwave the Marinette was standing near.

Without a word, he pushed Marinette aside, earning an offended, “Excuse me—hey!” from her as he grabbed the microwave door and tugged it. When that did little more than jostle the microwave itself, he tried blindly tampering with the buttons to no avail.

Marinette slapped his wrist away, standing with all her pride as guardian as she asked, “What do you think you’re doing?!”

He glared at her in response. “Young lady, I demand you open your magical sealing chamber and return what’s rightfully mine!”

She blanked, the words catching her completely off-guard. This guy thought their microwave was a magical sealing chamber?

In response, Marinette gave a brief glance to the others, who were all looking back at her with equally puzzled expressions, any tension from before completely gone.

An unspoken question echoed throughout the room: Is he for real?

Before Marinette could ask any further, Tikki emerged from her hiding spot, flying over and explaining, “Marinette, I know who this is! This is great master Su-Han, the guardian of the Miracle Box!”

Marinette raised a brow skeptically. “But I’m the guardian?”

“He was responsible for the box before the incident that Master Fu caused,” she corrected.

Su-Han looked down at Marinette condescendingly. “So you are the current holder of the box.”

“That’s right,” she confirmed unapologetically. She gave a side-glance to Luka and the others, seeing that they were prepared to stand up and fight for her, but she gave a subtle gesture to let them know that it wasn’t necessary. Resolving to deal with Su-Han herself, she faced him again. “How did you find us?”

He held out his staff, the jewel on it mere centimeters from her face. “Guardian scepters are equipped with compasses that can find their Miracle Box at any given time.”

“In case you lose it?” Marinette blurted out, but didn’t apologize or try to take it back.

“Insolent!” Su-Han gasped. “You are not even a proper guardian. I can tell that this box hasn’t even been properly passed down to you!”

“Because Master Fu gave it to me,” she explained, “and we agreed that he should keep his memories.”

“Fu?” Su-Han echoed. “You mean Wang Fu? Chicken legs?”

Is this guy five? Marinette wondered.

Orikko popped out from their hiding place, waving a paw at Su-Han as if in warning. “I take offense to that!”

Su-Han glared at Orikko at the comment, and Orikko quickly ducked back down. Turning his attention back to Marinette, he continued, “Wang Fu is a student who wasn’t even able to fast for a day, nor do a thousand finger-pushups. He was never a rightful guardian, and he failed to fulfill the hope we’d seen in him.”

“Master Fu may have made mistakes, but he’s done his best to make up for all of them!” she argued. “He protected the box for over one hundred years and it’s because of his choices that our team was able to defeat Hawk Moth!”

“Team?” Su-Han asked, his face scrunching up as if he were piecing something together.

“Yes!”

Marinette gestured to her boyfriend and friends for emphasis. Luka, Ivan, Kagami, and Juleka stood while Rose and Nino pinched and stretched their shirts to show off their respective miraculouses.

“Children?” Su-Han gaped. Glaring at Marinette, as if she had personally given out the miraculouses herself, he declared, “Children are never meant to hold miraculouses, especially from the first and most powerful Miracle Box! Kwami are extremely powerful, cosmic creatures!”

A voice piped up from across the room. “Y-you say that, but—!”

Marinette and Su-Han turned to look at Nooroo, who had peeked out from behind Rose’s shoulder. He breathed up, seeming to gain some confidence, then floated out to the center of the room.

“They saved me and Duusu from the hands of evil! We would still be in Gabriel’s clutches if not for them!”

“What?” Su-Han asked. Just when Marinette thought they might be getting somewhere, he turned back to her and accused, “The peacock and butterfly were lost?!”

“Fu lost them when he was escaping the temple,” Marinette explained, a mixture between unphased and annoyed at the man’s outbursts, “but we got them back and everything’s okay now.”

Luka chimed in from his place near the couch, “Marinette has been an incredible leader, as both Ladybug and the guardian.”

She smiled at him in thanks, but Su-Han was clearly focused on anything but the positives.

“Ladybug? You’re even wearing a miraculous?! Guardians aren’t meant to hold miraculouses!” he said, throwing his arms out for effect.

“What—why?” she asked, genuinely confused.

Instead of answering her, Su-Han pulled out a book, shoving it pointedly towards her with the cover facing downwards in his palm. “Let me remind you of a few important rules you’ve violated.” He flipped through a few pages, then pointed at one of them. “Rule fourteen: Kwami must not live outside of the box.” He flipped through a few more. “Rule fifty-two: Guardians must never lose a miraculous. “He flipped to a page near the end. “Rule one hundred and thirty-three: Guardians must never, under any circumstances, wear a miraculous.”

“Master Fu wore a miraculous,” she argued, having never heard of any such rule from him.

“And that proves exactly what I’m talking about!” Su-Han retorted. “Neither you nor Fu are capable guardians because neither of you have respected the rules of the order!”

“...”

When Marinette initially imagined the Order of the Guardians and the people who ran it, this was not what she’d pictured. She had pictured zen and calm, not belligerent and immovable. She was reminded vaguely of her grandfather when she first met him, and that wasn’t a good thing.

She tossed another gaze at everyone, who gave her the same look and nod in response: let him have it.

“Young lady, I’ll repeat myself once,” Su-Han warned. “Return the Miracle Box and the miraculouses to me before--”

Marinette grabbed the book out of his hand, shut it with a satisfying “clap,” then set it back in his hand. “No.“

“What did you say?” he asked, aghast that she would speak to him that way.

“I said no.” Marinette advanced on him, the sheer force of her presence making him take a step back. “Now let me remind you about everything you must’ve missed this whole time.”

She raised a finger at him, raising additional fingers as she went on. “One: You intruded on my boyfriend’s house without any sort of permission. If you’d actually called out to us, we might’ve actually been willing to come out and listen to what you had to say. Two: You wouldn’t have even been able to be here in the first place if not for me using Miraculous Ladybug after our team took down Feast, which you weren’t able to do. Three: We aren’t children, we’re teenagers, and the fact that you can’t tell the difference or bother learning what technology is shows that I shouldn’t trust you with the Miracle Box even if you had a right to it. Four: You didn’t bother to listen and blamed me for losing miraculouses when it was you and your order who didn’t keep an eye on a poor boy who didn’t want to be there. Five, last but not least: I say the kwami are allowed out of the Miracle Box because I am the guardian. You and your order have been gone for over one hundred years and you can’t go making demands after I brought you back. You told me rules I didn’t even know about and didn’t explain why you have those rules in the first place. The kwami are my friends and they have feelings and I’m not going to shut them in a box because you told me to.”

Silence filled the room, no one saying a word and Su-Han’s face contorting between shock and outrage.

Marinette took a step back, standing at the ready and gesturing to herself. “So if you want the Miracle Box, you’re going to have to go through us first.”

She tossed a look at her team, all of them doing a synchronized, confrontational motion to face Su-Han.

“Tikki!”

“Plagg!”

“Wayzz!”

“Pollen!”

“Trixx!”

“Nooroo!”

“Duusu!”

They then shouted in unison, “Transform me!”

Several individual flashes meshed together, overtaking the room and then fading to leave several heroes behind, their weapons equipped for battle.

Su-Han looked amongst them, a flicker in his eyes that hinted that he knew he would be outmatched, but also wasn’t willing to admit it. He retreated a few steps back, hands out to show that he was prepared to defend himself.

It was at that moment that Ladybug heard and noticed movement from behind him, realization striking and a smile overtaking her face. Pulling back from her fighting pose, she placed a hand on her hip and stated confidently, “Captain Anarka will escort you out.”

He looked confused, and he was only able to let out a, “What—?” before a hand clamped down on his shoulder.

Su-Han wasn���t even able to turn around before he was pulled backward, a jewelry-adorned fist decking him in the face and sending him flying into the staircase. His scepter fell to the floor and he could only gape at the woman standing there, cracking her knuckles while he was sprawled out on the stairs with all air having been knocked out of him.

“A trespasser on my ship, eh?” Anarka asked, a grin on her face but her eyes glinting with malice. “I don’t take kindly to ship rats who threaten my crew and think they’re too good to walk the plank.”

Su-Han hurried to get up, only for Anarka to grab him by his shirt and haul him up the stairs, a rapid shuffling noise following as Ladybug went over and shut the door.

A few seconds passed and the atmosphere shifted to peace, everyone mutually releasing their transformations and relaxing. Marinette smiled reassuringly at everyone, letting them know that things were okay, but then jumped as she heard a resounding, “Marinette!”

The kwami all emerged from their hiding places, Marinette having no time to react as they all charged at her, their tiny bodies clinging affectionately to whatever they could grab of her.

“You’re amazing!”

“Thank you so much!”

“You stood up for us!”

“You’re the best guardian ever!”

Marinette gasped, finding it hard to move without disturbing any of them. Trying hard not to laugh, she protested, “Aha—hey! Stop, you’re all tickling me!”

She blushed, looking over at her teammates who were only staring at her with pride, which just made the pink on her cheeks turn red. “This is so embarrassing!”

Once the kwami had their fill of thanking her, they finally obeyed and flew away, each giving her smiles of approval. She covered her face with a hand, waiting for the shyness to die down, then noticed the guardian scepter out of the corner of her eye, still lying on the ground.

She approached, touching the scepter at first to make sure it was safe, then properly picking it up and letting it stand next to her. She tapped the gem on top, eyeing the compass that Su-Han had been talking to her about, then followed its direction back to the microwave. She walked over, opening it up, then took out the Miracle Box and held it in her free hand.

Looking back and forth between the two clearly ancient objects, she couldn’t help chuckling. “They don’t really suit me.”

Her friends giggled in response, Luka in particular shooting her a warm smile and approaching. One of his hands went to the scepter and the other went to rest on the Miracle Box.

“I think you make them work, actually,” he replied.

Marinette beamed at him, thoroughly warmed by the compliment. It didn’t feel like that long ago when her support was lacking and defeating Hawk Moth seemed like a pipe dream.

Now, holding the Miracle Box and scepter in her hands, she didn’t know why she’d ever doubted herself.

“Yeah, maybe you’re right.” Then, looking at the Su-Han-less room, she gave a shrug and walked back with Luka to the couch. “So, where were we?”